Objective of the study was to highlight the key social problems faced by the modern elite sports in the context of the global social trends with their contradictions and conflicts. Methods and structure of the study. The study was designed to analyze the key negative factors of influence on the modern elite sports on the whole and their socio-cultural mission in particular using the following research methods: discourse analysis; analysis of the reference study reports; verification analyses; interviews and a questionnaire survey. We sampled for the interviews reputed physical education and sports experts (n=50) with 10-plus-year practical experiences; and the 1-year Russian State University of Physical Education, Sports, Youth and Tourism master students (n=58) majoring in the Elite Sports and Training Systems discipline under the academic Sports curricula. Results and discussion. Modern elite sports may be ranked among the key social progress phenomena as they are increasingly attractive for many people the world over. Their progress, however, is riddled with multiple and growing negative trends and problems that may undermine their global popularity and entertainment aspects with time. It may be stated with confidence that the modern elite sports tend to divert from their socio-cultural mission to evolve into a global business product with the bets and national accomplishments determined rather by pressures from influential global political powers than the traditional fair-play and let-the-best-win principles. Their social problems are rather mounting than being addressed and solved. It should be mentioned that the modern sports are totally different from those in the late XIX and early XX century in the essential contents, social functions, competitiveness, newly emerged gender issues, mounting pressures from influential political powers and many other serious aspects.
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