Annotation: The article research investigates the causes of phenomenal popularity of sport in the XXI century. The author believes that the matter of causes of sport popularity lies not only in the sphere of social interactions, but in the sphere of personal feelings as well. In XXI century along with the traditional kinds of sport, non-formal kinds of sport also become widespread (wind-surfing, rafting, sky-diving, etc.) which meet the demands of modern youth. Non-formal sports combine bodily skills with complicated technical equipment. A human of XXI century in terms of ultimate commutability and publicity of sport contest gets new opportunities for experiencing his physical and spiritual strengths and challenging nature elements. The author supports the idea that in spite of its contradictory nature sport possesses humanistic potential.

It is well-known that the problem of place and humanistic values of sport in modern culture is a subject of hot discussions and disputes among scientists – teachers, psychologists, philosophers and sociologists.

At the beginning of the previous century Max Sheller noticed: “I doubt whether any other phenomenon in the world deserves such a deep sociological and philosophical research today like sport activity. Sport is of great importance nowadays, although it is paid too little attention to the studying of sport sense”.

We have to note that almost after 100 years sport is still a less cleared-up event of modern time, most aspects of its social being have not interpreted sufficiently yet, sport is still “non-cleared-up problem” for the science and we will still have to explain its true meaning.

Sport is a more complicated, many-sided and deep phenomenon than many think. Sport has its secret, metaphysics, its own concealed sphere, where it is very interesting to penetrate for philosophical intellect. Like any creation of human hands sport is imperfect and contradictory. Many claims to modern sport are based on ideas and statements of Johan Huizinga, who stated that modern games and sport competitions are destroyed by “fatal transition to over seriousness”. At the same time he noted that game stopped being “profane” and as a result it lost “every possible organic relation with the society structure”. Now mass waits for “banal entertainments and coarse feelings” and they let themselves go to follow their inclinations. Instead of playing with childish freedom and strength, they play with the “mixture of youth and barbarism” which J.Huizinga calls “purerelism”. As J. Huizinga notes, sport is worth considering as playing activity, but in terms of modern society it is brought to such an extent of technical organization, material level and scientific interpretation that the threat of “losing the spirit of the game itself” seems to be a reality”.

Spectacular kinds of sport gained its modern significance together with the rise of mass production which strains the satisfied sport requirements, creating technical opportunities for selling sport contests to a wider audience. But, according to the widely-spread critics of modern sport, it is connected with the decrease of sport significance. “Commercializing turned game into work, bent the pleasure of the athlete to the pleasure of the spectator and made the spectator a couch potato – absolute contrast of sport health and strength”. During sport competition spectators, doing nothing, get an opportunity to experience excitement, expectation, hope for win and bitterness over defeat, etc. In most cases these emotions are much stronger than those connected with everyday routine of fans. The victory of «own» team is taken by a fan, lying on the sofa, like his own one, having the feeling of pride for «своих» and the feeling of superiority over “чужих”. The fact that this feelings are received for nothing and not supported by own efforts, is not taken into consideration. Feelings received for free made it more attractive and it allows combining the feeling of involvement in events and absolute safety in relation to the situation of position”. In sport critics’ opinion mania of victory encourages too much importance of competitive component of sport and oblivion of cooperation and interaction.

Victory cult, victory at any price makes players fierce and cynical competitors, and fans – fanatical chauvinists. Violence and at times disorders predominating at stands kill some critics with the fact that sport imposes militaristic and nationalistic values on youth.

Eco Umberto considers that sport activity is a “waste” of energy, received through eating, means for which we get working. Any non-utilitarian activity is accompanied by such “waste”, but it is necessary for a person because it gives freedom and liberates people from titanic necessity to work. But if for those who go in for sports this ‘recreational waste” turns into health and self-discipline, those who watch it, becomes the tool for “extracting health”, it is sue generis scopophilia when “I get dim enjoyment, watching the heath of others”.

“Undoubtedly the one who watches sport performing by others is getting excited during the competition, screaming and gesticulating thus doing physical and psychological exercises, reducing his aggressiveness and disciplines his competitive spirit. But this reduction is not compensated – like in case when somebody exercises himself, - with increased energy and acquired control or self-command”.

Why do we like sport though? What makes it fascinating and attractive? What is the cause of its phenomenal super popularity? And is sport of the XXI century the same as it was in the beginning of the XX century?

Answering the question about the causes of sport attractiveness we will refer not to social functions of sport but to its existential potentials which can be revealed only through appeal to a person. No social definitions of sport could explain the fact that makes people follow the twists and turns of fight with a sinking heart, rejoice and suffer on the sport ground, exhaust your body by sport ascesis and overcome serious dangers. Nobody will deny sincerity and genuineness of feelings, which are experienced not only by participants of sport contests, who have spent years of non-stop work but also triumphs of victory and tears of fans’ despair.

Thus, taking the stand of social reasonability it is unlikely to explain why sport exists. Here it is necessary to have absolutely another starting point which lies in the existential sphere, the sphere of secret strings of human soul, mysteries of character, irrational expectations, drives and abilities of empathy.

Thomas Gobbs called ambition the leading human passion and the main driving force of society. “Human life could be compared with a running contest and although this comparison can’t be considered as true in all terms, it is still enough for having an idea almost about all passions…you only have to imagine that the only goal and the only award for every participant of this contest – is to be ahead of everybody”. By all appearance in sport a human has found the tool with the help of publicity. And even after a war the matter of winners and losers is not at times unambiguous and reliable and after-war organization of world concedes different concessions and curtseys to losers, final whistle and total table exclude all questions: sport victory is absolute and maximal! Today, when competition in sport is very great and the level of sport achievements is exorbitant, there are only seconds between the winner and the loser and in order to detect the winner, linesman’s eyes are not enough, photo finish is required. And the boy who has just the school completion does not care that his level of competition is not so high. His ambition is satisfied, the victory belongs only to him, and he has done all his best for its sake. This sincerity and selflessness with which he has gained his victory equalizes it with Olympic gold medal. Any nation requires strong national character, which is hardened through historical and natural challenges. Through interaction of spirit and body sport trainings contribute to formation of character, will and personality of an athlete and stimulate the improvement of national character.

Today, sport contests are even more important than they were in ancient Greece where the most part of social life was moving around contests due to the fact that sport satisfies acute demand in physical efforts for rebirthing the feeling of physical foundation of life.

At the turn of the century people do not tend more to cruelty and violence than before and the rebirth of sport in the XX century and its scale, almost global transformation in the XXI century cannot be considered as an illustration of further human degradation. Today, the level of social control over violence and the standards of human self-control as well are higher than there were during the epoch of Ancient Olympic Games without saying about roman gladiator fights. It is worth suggesting that the destructive energy will better find a use in areas of destruction – in wars, hooliganism and vandalism but not in such a workmanship as any sport contest. The society having saved people from the necessity of earning a living physically has to give people an opportunity of having a physical game with strength, deftness and efforts. And if modern school propagate its maxims, ability to control yourself, if a family increases control over body in order to direct your emotions into a true course, increasing popularity of sport reflects those changes in public mind where it is admitted for “body” to follow its natural impulses and physically active people are endowed with a number of attractive qualities.

What does our Russian modern education system suggest an individual for developing his bodily and spiritual ambition? A child straitened with excessive restrictions and order is unable to know and appraise himself, he is in drowsiness and apathy. The most attention in school is paid to develop in children psychophysical qualities, connected with fulfilling locomotive and operational actions which are necessary for their social interaction. Self-identification of individuals is exhausted by the fact that an individual is to identify his position in society and master those bodily techniques which will be a necessary condition for realizing these or those kinds of activity and social perception of behavior of the given individual as proper. “Thus, the application of the modern education model can be one of the collateral results that a person alienates his own body from himself. “Alienation is getting faster when a subject is oriented largely on common forms of behavior and attaches less importance to his uniqueness. Fear begets weak body, mind efforts and limitation of emotional and sensory displays”. In definition of modern rational existence where everything is estimated in advance, but not everything is realized, where routine life gives few chances for heroism and feat, where legal spheres of activity do not allow body following its impulses, sport gives vent to life strength and desire to fight.

In moving and through moving an individual cognizes non-displayed being of his body, his aspiration for self-organization. Learning himself through moving an individual “cognizes” his potential and abilities, necessary for entering the world and living in it, thus, movement is not only the means of communication of people but it is the way of his self-expression and “self-cognition” among people. Any moving action reflects the degree of realizing yourself and the situation where this or that event takes place. Sport and active physical exercises bring a growing person joy from moving and understanding the naturalness of resistance of objective reality.

For the last decades the range of sports has been expanded by more than 240 disciplines. The appearance of such modern informal kinds of sport for enjoyment and adventures such as skydiving, freeclimbing, paragliding, rafting, windsurfing and others (most of them cannot be properly translated into Russian and have foreign transcription) is connected with the fact that traditional kinds of sport not meet new demands of modern youth; they are demands for speed, danger, progress.

Determinative workdays of an athlete of “postmodern” epoch remain the same: ascesis and “readiness for self-sacrifice” because the given kinds of sport require great “investment into physical capital”. But apart from these virtues sportsmen-surfers, snowboarders, skateboarders are required something special, notably “extreme commitment of participants to subculture and special life style”. “Extreme difficulty of dynamic relations” between an athlete’s body, technical equipment (sail, board, parachute) and natural elements (water, wind and impassable routs), all these make these kinds of sport a really great challenging to a person, satisfying the values of the XXI century. (9, p.8-13). ”Embodiment subordinated to will is convinced of its strength and courage; an individual open to nature forces acquires proximity to the world in its elements”.

What is common about these kinds of sport? It is the involvement of a person, interacted with the complicated technical equipment, into masterly movement in space, for whom the perception of speed and control over all elements of this process makes the sense of competitive activity. At the highest level all these kinds of sport require very large “investment of physical capital”. And in order to participate even in the lowest levels of competitions, the ability of an athlete to achieve control over the interaction of complicated technical equipment, his embodiment and conditions of natural environment must become “virtually intuitive”: it must happen unconsciously, when equipment becomes “the orthopedic continuation of human body”, and the wind strength – his additional resources.

Formalized competitions exist in wind-surfing, yachting, snow-boarding and others (some of the extreme kinds of sport are also included into Olympic kinds of sport), there are clubs which organize professional “programs” for shows and mass media. But most of sportsmen of informal kinds of sport do not participate in such events, preferring “free ride”, getting pleasure from “special” factors such as provocative opposition of themselves to natural environment. Even among elite participants the attitude towards formal competitions is contradictory, because the appearance of such kinds of sport was connected with the desire to avoid formality and orderliness in organization of traditional kinds of sport. It is necessary to remember that these kinds of sport are not available at any time, definite force of wind and wave is required; they are not spectator oriented to a considerable degree, because in most cases competition venue is unavailable for spectators’ presence. It does not mean the informal sport is isolated and non-competitive; sportsmen gather at suitable sites (beaches, mountain slopes, etc.) and compete informally with each other and make decisions about competiveness and skills of each other, that is “the main forms of sub-cultural physical capital and status”. Attitudes to athletes’ competitions, choosing venue and difficulty in mastering skills – all these characteristics are the part of embodied human capital, which determines the nature of informal kinds of sport as life style.

It is well-known that the attribute of any kind of sport is presence of simple, clear, definite and non-changeable rules of contests. These rules equalize sportsmen with each other and resistant challenging natural world as well. Let spectators be against of you, let referee makes a mistake and let the nature not be gracious to you, sport fight will not lose its value, as spectators and a referee himself with his mistakes and the whole refractory Universe – everything is regulated in these rules. Fair victory is implementation of pure, magic expectation of happy outcome, where good always endures evil.

In a wider sense a rival belongs to the rules according to which a human fights with the world on the sport ground. A good sportsman always treats his rival respectfully and not because of his noble nature, but due to the fact the presence of a rival is one of fair conditions where a human must win. Therefore sport in spite of its unlimited aim at the result will never slip into the level of street fight where everything is allowed; - otherwise it loses its essence: sincerity, honesty and deserved victory. At the same time an athlete will not only demonstrate his physical, tactical, technical, volitional and other qualities, but also find himself and reproduce social space with his own activity where he affirms his high ideals.