Peculiarities of the legal status of athletes as subjects of labor law

The article is devoted to the study of the peculiarities of the legal status of athletes as subjects of labor law. It is noted that at the current stage of development, the role of physical culture and sports in Ukraine is growing significantly and is one of the priority directions of the state’s social policy, an important tool in the implementation of its tasks, the state is interested in the proper development of legal relations in the field of sports. At the same time, researching the issue of the legal status of an athlete as a subject of professional sports legal relations, analyzing the legislation that regulates activities in the field of physical culture and sports, it was concluded that very little attention is paid to it. Regarding the research of this issue by scientists, their points of view differ, in particular, some are convinced that the legal regulation of the legal status of a professional athlete should be carried out in accordance with civil legislation, others - according to labor legislation, some generally emphasize the dual nature of the peculiarities of the legal status of a professional athlete in Ukraine. The author of the article concluded that the regulation of the sports activities of professional athletes should be regulated by the norms of labor legislation, if they concluded an employment contract on receiving remuneration for systematic special sports and training preparation for participation in sports competitions, participation in them and the results shown, and accordingly are sub objects of labor law. That is, a professional athlete has the right to have his sporting activities take place within the framework of labor relations, therefore, prohibiting him from exercising this right means violating the provisions of the Basic Law of the country, since the right to choose the form of using one’s abilities is established in relation to any profession and type of activity. At the same time, the activities of not all sportsmen should be regulated by the norms of labor legislation, but only those with whom an employment contract is concluded, or relations with which, despite their official registration as civil law, have all the signs of employment.