The Impact of COVID-19 Incidence on Motivation to Participate in a Triathlon.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused many changes that have influenced the lives of people around the world and have left their mark in the world of sports, as well. Numerous restrictions resulted in the cancellation of the organization of many sports events, and the players themselves had restricted access to training. The main goal of the study was to identify the motivation to participate in a triathlon between athletes who have undergone COVID-19, those who have never been infected and those who do not know if they have ever caught the virus and to evaluate the differences between them. The assessment of the motives for participating in a sports event was conducted according to four types of orientation: social, experience, factual and results to check what benefits for well-being and self-improvement are brought about by participation in a triathlon as a mass sports event. The desire to feel unity, to develop passion, to integrate with other people and to get away from everyday life were the most important motives for those who have never been infected. It turns out that 100% of the respondents who had a history of COVID-19 disease indicated the desire to prove themselves. The desire to maintain good physical condition and health was reported by the majority of researched people, but again, all respondents (100%) who had been infected with COVID-19 indicated these motives as the most important.

Socio-Psychological Functions of Men and Women Triathlon Participation.

Motivations to run marathons have been recognised by many researchers, but few have paid attention to triathletes. Mass triathlon participation is a new trend, which manifests itself as a human need to invoke strong emotions and seek them in difficult sports, as well as to travel to participate in such events. Therefore, the main goal of this study was to recognise the motivations to participate in triathlons among men and women respondents, and to evaluate the differences between them. The empirical research among triathletes (n = 1141) recognised the motives for participation in mass triathlon sporting events in accordance with four types of orientation: social, experience, factual, and result. Most important conclusions resulting from the conducted research indicate that women significantly more often displayed the will to feel unity and integration, as well as the desire to gain recognition in the eyes of others, as compared to men. For men, the desire to feel equal was significantly more important than for women. Both men and women indicated the desire to maintain good physical condition and health, which turned out to be a significant factor. For men, Group B-specifying the experience orientation, was deemed the most important, while for women the most important group of motives was Group D-specifying the result orientation.

Difficulties Limiting Access to Sports and Recreational Facilities in the City in the Perceptions of Service Users. Sports and Recreational Infrastructure Management Policy-Poznan Case Study.

The range of sports and recreation facilities' offer should be very wide in order for all social groups of the examined environment to have access to sports and recreation facilities. Therefore, Poznan City Hall should take into account all difficulties that limit the access to these facilities when preparing management policy of sports and recreation infrastructure and its functioning. That is why the main goal of this study is to recognize difficulties limiting the access to sports and recreation facilities in this city. The research carried out at indoor tennis courts (16 facilities), indoor swimming polls (12 facilities) and fitness clubs (11 facilities) in Poznan covered 1159 service recipients (using the services of a given sports and recreation facility). The author-constructed questionnaire addressed to the service recipients (residents of the city of Poznan who use the services offered at the examined sports and recreation facilities). Furthermore, the service recipients were divided into a group of people doing sports competitively and a group of recipients who have never practiced sports as professional athletes. The validated questionnaire sent to the examined service recipients included suggestions of difficulties that may limit the access to sports and recreation facilities in the city of Poznan. Further analysis of the importance of difficulties that limit the access to sports and recreation facilities may allow indicating the reason why recreational activity of residents is limited. A lower level of satisfaction and thus a lower rating of the respondents was obtained by a set of features constituting, according to the respondents, difficulties limiting the access to the use of sports and recreation facilities (high prices and too great of a distance of the sports and recreation facility from the place of residence).

The Potential of Non-Mega Sporting Events for the Promotion of Physical Activity Among Inactive Supporters at the Poznan Half Marathon: A Case Study.

The impact of sports events on the promotion of physical activity, healthy lifestyles and sports participation is debatable, and most of the literature is on mega-events. This begs the question if more evidence of this type of impact can be found for non-mega events. Research on sports legacy often refers to the tangible effects such as infrastructure that is left after the competition. However, the construction of new facilities does not automatically result in attracting participants. Despite the high expectations of events organizers in terms of their impacts on pro-health behavior of people, few studies provide empirical evidence that events encourage sport fans to become more physically active. The aim of this research was to examine whether a mass run promotes physical activity among spectators, and whether a mass run influences the willingness of spectators to start in half marathon in the future. A written paper-pencil survey was collected from 510 spectators during the 6th Poznan Half Marathon. The results show that observing a mass run event has a positive impact on the willingness to engage in regular physical activity as well as the willingness to take part in this type of sport in the future. Our work provides knowledge about the level of effectiveness in promoting active lifestyles among supporters depending on age, sex and place of residents. This work focuses on mass runs, which have been under-researched when it comes to impact on sport participation.

Hierarchy of Factors Affecting the Condition and Development of Sports and Recreation Infrastructure-Impact on the Recreational Activity and Health of the Residents of a City (Poznan Case Study).

The aim of the article is to identify which groups of factors (economic, social, and spatial) significantly determine the condition and development of the sports and recreation infrastructure of the city of Poznan and shape the needs and expectations of its residents. Standardized interviews among 39 service providers and 1159 service recipients made it possible to collect primary data on the presentation of the pace and directions of changes taking place in the sports and recreational facilities of the city, paying special attention to identifying and prioritizing factors determining this development. In order to establish the hierarchy of factors analyzed in the paper and operating within the same research problem for both groups of respondents (service recipients and service providers), the Anderson-Darling test was used. The test results were referenced to the already existing "Sportowy Poznan" ("Sports Poznan") program. The assessment made by service recipients shows that the factor having the strongest limiting effect on the use of sports and recreation services is the economic factor. In the assessment made by the respondents using their services, the efforts of city authorities to make Poznan sports clubs operate in a professional manner gained the lowest score. The results of the Anderson⁻Darling test show that the social factor of preparing infrastructure for the residents of the city of Poznan was the most important for the respondents, obtaining a test value of 0.886.

Running as a Form of Therapy Socio-Psychological Functions of Mass Running Events for Men and Women.

The main goal of this study was to recognize the motives of participation in mass running events (Poznan Half Marathon case study). The second aim was to examine the motivations to participate in a half-marathon among two groups of respondents: men and women, and to evaluate the differences between them. The empirical research among runners (n = 560) conducted during the one of the most important running events in Poland recognized the motives for participation in the sports event in accordance with the four basic types of orientation: social orientation, experience orientation, factual orientation, and result orientation (Freyer & Gross, 2002). The significant difference between surveyed men and women appeared in the motives of desire to get away from everyday life and its prevailing fashion, which turned out to be more important for women than for men. The desire to win was not important for the respondents. All respondents reported that what was very important for them was the need to experience strong emotions related to participation, the desire to feel unity and integration with other people, and the desire to test themselves. In general, the results show that people participate in running events not only for physical activity, but also for mental well-being and socio-psychological effects. They experience strong emotions, adrenaline, pleasure, relaxation, and an escape from the duties and hardships of everyday life and have an opportunity to build social relationships thanks to mass sports events organized in urban agglomerations. The article constitutes a conceptualization of the running event in the dimension of social and psychological interactions, which reveal and demonstrate its creative layers and contemporary meaning which has already gone deeply beyond functions of running for health and improving the physical condition.