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The aim of the present study was to examine the motivation of recreational runners and its variation by sex, age, and performance level. Finishers (female: n = 32, age 40.1 ± 9.0 years old, height 162 ± 7 cm, body mass 57.7 ± 7.5 kg, race record 4:34 ± 0:39 h:min; male: n = 134, 44.2 ± 8.6 years, 176 ± 6 cm, 77.0 ± 9.3 kg, 4:02 ± 0:44 h:min) in the Athens Classic Marathon 2017 completed the Motivations of Marathoners Scales (MOMS) 56-item questionnaire. The highest scores in the MOMS were observed in the general health orientation and personal goal achievement categories, and the lowest in the recognition and competition areas. Female participants scored higher in coping, self-esteem, and goal achievement than their male counterparts ( p < 0.05). The <30 age group scored higher than the 35-40 and 40-45 age groups in "competing with other runners" for male participants ( p < 0.05). The average performance group outscored the slowest group in "achieving personal goals" and "competing with other runners" in female participants, whereas an effect of performance on these two themes was shown in male participants as well ( p < 0.05). In summary, we partially confirmed that female and male marathon runners differ for their motivations. In addition, novel findings were the identification of age and performance level as correlates of motivations. The knowledge of these trends would be of great practical value for practitioners to optimize the motivation of their athletes.

The aim of the present research was to investigate the relationship between coaching behavior and athletes' inherent self-talk (ST). Three studies were conducted. The first study tested the construct validity of the Coaching Behavior Questionnaire (CBQ) in the Greek language, and provided support for its original factor structure. The second study examined the relationships between coaching behavior and athletes' ST in field, with two different samples. The results showed that supportive coaching behavior was positively related to positive ST (in one sample) and negatively related to negative ST (in both samples), whereas negative coaching behavior was negatively related to positive ST (in one sample) and positively related to negative ST (in both samples). Finally, the third study examined the relationships experimentally, to produce evidence regarding the direction of causality. The results showed that variations in coaching behavior affected participants' ST. Overall, the results of the present investigation provided considerable evidence regarding the links between coaching behavior and athletes' ST and suggested that coaches may have an impact on athletes' thoughts.

We relied on self-determination theory (SDT; Deci & Ryan, 2000) to investigate to what extent autonomy-supporting corrective feedback (i.e., feedback that coaches communicate to their athletes after poor performance or mistakes) is associated with athletes' optimal motivation and well-being. To test this hypothesis, we conducted a cross-sectional study with 337 (67.1% males) Greek adolescent athletes (age M = 15.59, SD = 2.37) from various sports. Aligned with SDT, we found through path analysis that an autonomy-supporting versus controlling communication style was positively related to future intentions to persist and well-being and negatively related to ill-being. These relations were partially mediated by the perceived legitimacy of the corrective feedback (i.e., the degree of acceptance of corrective feedback), and, in turn, by intrinsic motivation, identified regulation, and external regulation for doing sports. Results indicate that autonomy-supporting feedback can be still motivating even in cases in which such feedback conveys messages of still too low competence.

This study investigates the evolution of the historiography of Greek sport from the foundation of the Greek state (1830) until 1982 and its links with Greek national history, which also took shape primarily during the nineteenth century. The gradual 'nationalisation' of sport as an element of Greek national character since antiquity corresponded to changes in perceptions of the national past reflected in historiography. The ancient Olympic Games, Byzantine contests and exercises, the competitions of the klephts and armatoloi (militia soldiers) during the Ottoman rule and the modern revival of the Olympic Games were all successively integrated in a national history of sport confirming national continuity and unity. However this particular genre of national historiography did not gain academic recognition until recently. The authors of histories of physical exercise and sport were amateurs or physical education instructors and could not ensure to their work the authority of a separate discipline.

This article discusses different expressions of mid- and upper-class Greek women's use of classical antiquity in relation to female bodily culture. It focuses on two cases, connected with successive phases of the collective women's action in Greece. The first case concerns principally the conjuncture of the Athens Olympic Games of 1896. The games offered the opportunity to the Ladies' Journal, the weekly that gave expression to the first feminist group in Greece and its leading figure, C. Parren, to put forward a discourse which, by constructing a specific image of the ancient Heraia games for 'maidens', 'invents' a specific athletic-competitive 'tradition' on behalf of Greek women of their social class. The second case rejoins the same circle of women principally in the interwar years as leading figures of the Lyceum of Greek Women, the organization which distinguished itself by juxtaposing to the newly formed militant feminist organizations its 'hellenic-worthy' activity, by organizing monumental festivals in the Panathenaic Stadium, which, through displays of 'national' dances - folk and 'ancient' dances - and other ritual events, performed the 'tradition' of the nation from prehistory until today.

This study employed Nicholls' social-cognitive approach to achievement motivation along with beliefs about the causes of success. The aims of the study were (a) to test the factor structure of the Greek adaptation of the Perception of Success Questionnaire and the Beliefs about the Causes of Sport Success Questionnaire in a sample of Greek track and field athletes, (b) to explore goal orientation and beliefs about the causes of success in the same sample of track and field athletes, and (c) to interpret both factor structures together, according to the respective theoretical frameworks of achievement motivation. The results verified the task and ego goal orientation dimensions for the Perception of Success Questionnaire. The proposed dimensions for the Beliefs about the Causes of Sport Success Questionnaire were also supported. Two dimensions were found when the two sets of factors were conjointly described, named "winning by all means" and "working hard," which might act as an alternative framework when dealing with achievement issues in sports.