Abstract
Athletes’ true self-realization depends on the degree of mobilization of personal resources, particularly the motivational ones, which act as long-term regulators of athletes’ activity. The optimal management of motivation at each stage of the sporting career, both in elite and amateur sports, predetermines athletes’ self-realization to a great extent. The aim of the research was to examine the motivational determinants, resilience and self-realization components and their specificity among elite athletes, amateurs, and para-Olympians. The research was conducted among 180 athletes: 60 elite athletes, 60 amateurs, and 60 para-Olympians. For the purposes of the study, we used: Questionnaire for researching the motives of sports activity, Tropnikov; Questionnaire “Motives of Sports activity”(MSA), Kalinin, adapted by Y. Krasmik (2022); Psychic Resistance Test, Muddy, adapted by D. A. Leontiev and E. I. Raskazova; Multidimensional questionnaire on personality self-realization, Kudinov. The results revealed different motivational profiles of elite athletes, amateur athletes, and para-Olympians and a specific hierarchy of motives. The level of self-realization of the athletes belonging to the three groups corresponds to the adaptive one. The established differences showed a higher level of self-realization in the group of elite athletes.