ETHNIC STEREOTYPES IN SPORTS AND PHYSICAL ACTIVITY PROFESSIONALS

The main aim of this paper is to know whether current and future sports professionals hold ethnic stereotypes about black athletes. We interviewed a group of 38 professional coaches and Physical Education students, and administered a questionnaire to a sample of 272 students from three Movement and Health Science departments in the Italian region of Lazio. The results show that both coaches and sport science students hold ethnic stereotypes on ethnic belonging and connected to concepts of sports performance, such as the belief in biological superiority and genetic predisposition of black athletes for basketball or sprinting and their lower inclination to swimming. The study highlights the need for a pedagogical proposal on the educational implications of certain stereotypes for young students.