The 11th Czech Philosophy of Sport Conference

It does not happen very often that the city of České Budějovice becomes a meeting point of the world-renowned researchers. We are then even more delighted when this occurs. Faculty of Theology of the University of South Bohemia became a host of the 11th Czech Philosophy of Sport Conference. The event was held from 21^st to 23^rd October (from Friday to Sunday). It was a prestigious conference with an international participation and a high standard of quality. The conference focused primarily on the philosophy of sport discipline which is currently an established area of the Czech as well as foreign university studies. Faculty of Theology hosted the 9th year of the conference in 2020, but due to the pandemic situation, it was only held online via the Zoom platform. Previous meetings were hosted by Prague, Brno, and Olomouc. This year's conference was held physically with some papers being presented online for practical reasons. The main organizers of this year’s conference were Daniel D. Novotný, Ph.D. (academic at the Faculty of Theology, JU), Prof. Dr. Jim Parry (Charles University) and Mgr. Lukáš Mareš (PhD student at the Faculty of Theology, JU).  

The conference was special in several respects. We will list some of them to illustrate this point further: 

- International participation. Daniel Novotný from the Faculty of Theology states: "Although the conference is called "Czech", it is actually quite strongly international. We have participants from more than 12 countries and 4 continents." Among the participants were also some Czech scholars, namely Ivo Jirásek (an internationally renowned expert in the philosophy of sport and a guru of the Czech experiential pedagogy) and Irena Martínková (who currently holds an academic position at Charles University and is also internationally renowned in the field of the philosophy of sport). There were also people from practice - one of the speakers was David Matějka, who is currently a student at the University of South Bohemia and who works as a coach for the HC Motor České Budějovice (U10 category). Lukáš Mareš is a PhD student of philosophy at the Faculty of Theology (JU) and also works for the Motor České Budějovice hockey club as a mental coach and philosophical consultant. 

- The main speakers are experts in the field: 

• Scott Kretchmar from Penn State University was at the birth of the academic discipline of the philosophy of sport in the 1970s. Since then, he has published key texts that helped to constitute th field. 
• Lev Kreft, whose research focuses on aesthetics, is a former prominent Slovenian politician who has chosen to pursue a career as an academic and a philosopher. 
• Emily Ryall is a former rugby player who is currently one of the most influential scholars on the topics of sport, play, and game. 

- Women had a significant presence at the conference: 13 of the 25 active presenters were women. 

- The format prioritised discussion: Each lecture wasn’t simply a matter of sharing one's own research, but rather a collaborative critical exploration of the topics. 

- Presented topics were the ones that are hotly discussed in the contemporary academic debate as well as in the current sporting practice: esports, transgender athletes, the future of major sporting events, morality in sport, animals in sport - the question of their rights and autonomy, politics and sport, the dark side of professional sport, the role of sport in a good life, etc. 

- We went beyond the space of academia: As part of the social programme, the participants went to a public ice skating and to a hockey game between Motor and Trinec (23^rd October) where the home team managed to win. 

The quality of the conference was significantly influenced by the fact that the organizers were successful in gaining financial support from the University of South Bohemia (RVO funding). This allowed them to invite the foreign keynote speakers. We are confident that it wasn’t the last time when this conference was hosted by our university.