This article is a reflection on what citizenship means today, how it can be generally characterized, and how it manifests itself in sport. It does not attempt to provide an exhaustive overview of the topic based on a systematic review, but focuses on aspects that, according to the author, must be considered essential. Supranational organizations (the United Nations, the European Union) and states today talk about different forms of citizenship (global, active, national), but the literature points to possible controversies associated with the concept of citizenship in today’s globalized and complex world where there is large-scale mobility of people between countries. For most authors, the core of citizenship lies in belonging, or a sense of belonging. This article discusses the main components of belonging and their potentiality for human life, and for sport, too. Citizenship is also viewed as multifaceted, and so its dimensions are distinguished (legal/political, social, cultural, and economic) and explained. Sport represents a specific area in understanding citizenship. Not all features of belonging or dimensions of citizenship play the same important role here. Elite sport and the sport of the ordinary population must be distinguished. In elite sport, the legal ties of athletes to society/the state dominate, while in community sport, other aspects of belonging play a role.

This paper explores the role of technology in sports development. Based on three examples – artificial surfaces in field hockey and football (including the Jabulani football); javelins and vault-poles; and running shoes and swimsuits – a criterion is proposed to help decide whether or not (and why) to welcome new technologies into sport. This criterion relies firstly on an analysis of the role of the rule in sport; secondly on the identification and understanding of the constitutive rules of sport; and thirdly on our identification and acknowledgement of the ‘internal goods’ of sport as a social practice. The idea is that the internal goods of sport (which are what we seek) are created by the constitutive rules; and so proposed new technologies, and associated rule changes, should be assessed according to their ability to promote the relevant internal goods.

In this study, we investigated the relationships among perceived social support, perceived available support in sport, team cohesion, grit, sport engagement, and life satisfaction among disability sport athletes. Twenty-four athletes from Israel and Belgium, aged 22 to 65, 87.5% male (n = 24) and 12.5% female (n = 3), with physical disabilities participated. The results showed significant positive correlations between team cohesion and sport engagement (r = 0.44, p < 0.05) and life satisfaction (r = 0.57, p < 0.01). Team cohesion was also linked to perceived social support (r = 0.55, p < 0.01). Finally, grit and sport engagement (r = 0.50, p < 0.01) and perceived social support and sport engagement (r = 0.50, p < 0.05) were correlated. These findings underscore the importance of supportive social environments inside and outside of sport in potentially enhancing athlete well-being.

This aim of this article is to describe up-to-date polices and main classification issues in Paralympic sport with focus on Paralympic swimming. Using narrative review, it determines the influence of recent classification changes by reviewing available research data on how the classification system works and what direction it has taken after January 2018 when the new Classification Manual for swimming was published. It analyzes those changes in Czech Para Swimming Team during 4-year-period leading up to Tokyo Paralympic Games 2020 including 3 major swimming competetions and Paralympic Games itself. The results show the changes directly influenced the performance of Czech para swimmers in mentioned major competetions in a positive way. Czech Para Swimming Team added two more medals and gained more spots for both men and women for Tokyo Paralympic Games 2020 effectively extending relatively small Czech Paralympic Team in Tokyo.

Social media platforms allow athletes to share information with the public. This opportunity is arguably more important for female athletes who traditionally receive less space in the mainstream media than their male counterparts. This article focuses on the social media self-presentation of six successful, internationally recognized, professional Czech female athletes and their fans’ reactions. By using qualitative and quantitative content analyses, it was revealed that throughout the season, the selected athletes presented themselves as powerful professionals, while their off-season posting tended to be more personal and, for the most part, more feminine. Contrary to previous research, fans did not frequently respond with explicitly sexual or negative comments. Moreover, they supported and admired the athletes, and in most cases, reacted positively. A higher sensitivity was indicated in relation to the sportswomen’s personal relationships and opinions. This leads us to the conclusion that social media enables professional female athletes to present themselves more freely than traditional media and be positively received by the public.

The purpose of the study was to evaluate the effect of a repeated 1-week intensive programme in patients with mid-stage Huntington’s disease on stability and quality of life. 12 patients completed two 1-week programmes, separated by a one-year interval. Each programme consisted of a 120-minute intervention in the form of a fitness exercise, procedures targeting static and dynamic postural stability, procedures of respiratory physiotherapy and orofacial region therapy. The patient completed a total of 4 evaluations using the Sit to Stand Test, Timed up and Go Test and completed the quality of life SF-36 questionnaire. Statistically significant changes have been shown in the Sit-and-stand test in both years. Weaker but still significant changes were found in the TUG test only in the first year, while there was improvement in the second intervention year that was not statistically significant. Evaluation of the quality of life suggested a positive influence of physical activity in the dimensions: restriction caused by emotional problems, somatic pain and change of health. Our results suggest that a repeated, intensive one-week intervention can have a positive influence on postural stability and can contribute to the improvement of some quality of life dimensions in patients with mid-stage HD.

The paper deals with the comparison of the impact of the use of athletes and bloggers in marketing communication on purchasing preferences of individuals which belong to the so-called Generation Z. There are two interdependent methods used for the research. The first of these methods is a questionnaire survey, which includes 508 respondents. 32 respondents separated in two groups attended the second method, which is a focus group. The research results show that athletes influence the behavioral intentions of members of the Generation Z more than bloggers in every researched sphere. The main difference in effectivity is clear from the comparison between both groups by respondents.

The main goal of the experiment was to compare electrical activity in selected muscles: m. tibialis anterior, m. gastrocnemius, m. rectus femoris, m. biceps femoris and mm. erectores spinae, at the TH/L transition level patients with Parkinson’s disease when walking on dry land and in a water environment, using surface electromyography. The experimental set consisted of five subjects, two men and three women, aged 67.4 ± 7.1. A surface EMG was used to measure muscle activity in the m. tibialis anterior, m. gastrocnemius, m. rectus femoris, m. biceps femoris and mm. erectores spinae at the TH/L transition level. The resultant EMG signal was rectified and then the normalized muscle activity level was evaluated for walking in various environments: on dry land and in water. Results showed identical normalized activity of monitored muscles in a water environment, which indicates a permanent effect of the pathological central programme accompanying Parkinson’s disease, where the coordination pattern typical for a water environment fails to occur.

Front kicks are often used in combat activities that involve the use of kicks and punches, including close combat military training. To mimic real-life combative environments where soldiers execute forceful front kicks while wearing military boots, it is logical to wear these boots during close combat training. However, the effect of military footwear on front kick forces remain unknown. Therefore, the aim of this study was to compare the effects of military boots on front kick dynamics. Six male soldiers (23.3 ± 1.7 yr, 74.3 ± 6.2 kg, 175.5 ± 4.5 cm) performed eight individual front kicks with no military boots, in bare feet (NB) and with military boots (MB). Peak force (N), impulse (N.s) and time to reach peak force (ms), were measured during each kick. Data were analyzed using paired sample t-tests or nonparametric Wilcoxon pair test and Cohen’s d. Results. Neither peak force (3180 ± 647 N) nor impulse (367 ± 40 N.s) of MB were different than NB (3157 ± 291 N and 360 ± 48 N.s, respectively) (p = 0.85; d = 0.04 and p = 0.36; d = 0.12, respectively). Peak force was reached in a significantly shorter time during MB (39 ± 16 ms) compared to NB (56 ± 8 ms; d = −0.88). Conclusion. Peak force was reached in a shorter time using MB compared to barefoot (NB) front kicks. The use of military boots changes the time course of peak force during the front kick.

The place of Dr Ludwig Guttmann in the founding history of the Paralympic Games is universally acknowledged. Briefly stated, Guttmann is credited with the aspiration to improve the dismal prospects of postwar spinal injury patients, and the inspiration of using sports as rehabilitative practices. Given his initiation of the Stoke Mandeville Games in 1948 with a small-scale archery contest between two local teams, he was able to draw a ready parallel between his beginnings and the model of the London Olympic Games, and in a few short years the multi-disability Paralympic Games had been established. However, there was both an historical context and a co-history to these brief details – there are lessons from both time and place. We must not forget (or fail to acknowledge) some of the pre-history and parallel histories, which we should attempt to recover. This article presents an account of the development of the Kladruby Games in Czechoslovakia from 1948, which in 2017 celebrate their 100th edition, in order to bring to light some of the hidden history of disability sport. We might be led to speculate on how the Kladruby Games might have developed from these very promising beginnings, had Srdečný received earlier support from the authorities, and the impetus to consider Olympic connections. Such speculations we consider to be fruitless, given the very different conceptions of disability sport at work here. Srdečný’s continuing commitment was to seeing the Kladruby Games as an impetus to the rehabilitative and recreational benefits of sport, rather than the contradictions experienced by the Paralympics in balancing elite performance values with its other aims.