Reasons of liability for damage that athlete could suffer on sports competition

Abstract

Every sporting activity means taking a greater or lesser risk. To eliminate that risk means to eliminate sport. The accidents happen in all sorts of sport causing damage to participants or other persons which raises the issue of compensation for damage. Accident risks increase by increasing demands for speed, strength, skill, boldness and endurance. Damages that happen at the sporting events arise in most cases as a result of personal right infringement, and rarely as an infringement of property right. Legal scholars connect such infringements primarily with so-called sport accidents. These are the cases when injuries of athletes stand in direct time and space relation with his/her sporting activity. Besides that, it is important that the accident is connected with typical risks of certain sporting activity and that it was performed by an active athlete.. In this paper author analyzes basics or reasons of liability for damage that athlete could suffer on sports competition, included analyzes the circumstances that exclude or reduce liability for damage suffered by an athlete at a sporting event due to realization of typical risks involved in certain sporting event or activity. Beside the given review on comparative law solutions, the author particularly analyzed the new approach adopted by the Law on Sport of the Republic of Serbia from 2011 in that comparing it with the usual attitude accepted in legal practice and theory of former Yugoslav republics.

Keywords

• athlete
• causing of damage
• sports competition
• exclusion of liability
• Law on Sports
• typical sporting activity risk