Citius, Altius, Fortius vs. Slow Sport: A New Era of Sustainable Sport

Abstract

The objective of the article is to present the slow sport movement as a phenomenon developing in the postmodern era in opposition to the idea of citius, altius, fortius (Eng. faster, higher, stronger). The theoretical part of the article describes the health repercussions of slow movement and its implications for the sports industry and sports tourism. It also points to new challenges in sports management and sports tourism implemented in the slow style. The empirical part of the article aims at determining what influence the achievement of a self-set sports goal has on the degree of satisfaction with participation in a running event among runners. Could runners who did not set themselves any sports goal and ran for pleasure (according to the idea of slow sport) achieve the same degree of satisfaction as runners who set themselves an ambitious sports goal and achieved it (according to the idea of citius, altius, fortius)? The case study is the 6th Poznan Half Marathon, a cyclical, popular running event taking place in Poland. A total of 560 runners (n = 560) took part in the diagnostic survey conducted using the interview technique. The ANOVA Rang Kruskal-Wallis test and Dunn’s test were used in the study. The results show that athletes who did not set a sporting goal (ran for pleasure, company, atmosphere, participation, etc.) experienced the same level of satisfaction as athletes who achieved their intended sporting goal. It turns out, therefore, that sport and physical activity done for pleasure in accordance with the slow sport idea can provide the same level of satisfaction as sport practiced in the spirit of citius, altius, fortius.