Introduction and objective: Research on runners is most often conducted in the context of sports motivation using the adaptation of the Motivations of Marathoners Scale (MOMS) questionnaire, which, however, does not measure aspects related to tourism, nature or socio-cultural aspects. The aim of the study was to create a Polish adaptation of the Sports Tourism Motivation Scale (STMS) for athletes, especially runners, which, for the first time, enables the examination of socio-cultural and tourism-related aspects among them in Poland.
Material and methods: To conduct the adaptation, the STMS tool was tested among 100 individuals who engage in running: 50 participating in a city-organized running event around cultural monuments (2022 Poznań Marathon) and another 50 individuals running on non-urban routes - in a national park (2022 Łemkowyna Ultra-Trail), exemplified by a nature-surrounded running activity.
Results: The conducted studies demonstrated that the STMS proves to be highly valuable in examining motivation among athletes. Confirmation of its structure, successful model fitting, and the ability to identify distinct motivational groups indicate that the scale can provide significant insights into athletes' motivations.
Conclusions: This adaptation will be a crucial tool for researchers, coaches, sports and event managers and sports practitioners to better comprehend the motivations influencing athletes' behaviours and tailor strategies accordingly to their needs.
Keywords: Poland; STMS; adaptation; athletes; motivation; runners; sports; tourism.