Introduction to sport and exercise psychology: international perspectives

Abstract

[Introduction]: In August 2005, the International Society of Sport Psychology (ISSP) held its eleventh World Congress in Sydney, Australia, the Congress’s first visit to the southern hemisphere. The 11th ISSP World Congress of Sport Psychology was auspicious in an even more significant sense. The year 2005 was the 40th anniversary of the occasion of the first World Congress of Sport Psychology that included the creation of ISSP. In 1965, Feruccio Antonelli hosted the 1st World Congress of Sport Psychology in Rome, Italy. It was a large congress for its time, with around 450 delegates (Morris, Hackfort, & Lidor, 2003). Most of the delegates were doctors and psychiatrists with an interest in sport, whereas others were physical education specialists. There were few sport psychologists present, because the profession hardly existed then. During the event, Antonelli held a business meeting in the course of which he and a colleague proposed the foundation of ISSP and Antonelli was elected its first President (Salmela, 1997). The rest is history, as they say.