Abstract There are many reasons why individuals are motivated to participate in sports. For athletes to participate in and keep up exercise, investigating the participation motivation of athletes is necessary. The aim of this study was to compare sport participation motivation of athletes in team and individual disciplines. The sample consisted of 265 athletes including four teams from football, volleyball, basketball, and handball and two individual disciplines of kung fu and taekwondo which were randomly selected. The 30-item sports participation motivation questionnaire (PMQ) was used. Analysis of data was conducted by the use of independent-samples t-test. The results showed that there is a significant difference between the sports participation motivation of athletes in a team and individual sports as well as between male and female athletes. But, among the components of the sports participation motivation, only the aspect of achievement in a team and individual sports and the aspect of finding friendship in male and female athletes existed, no other significant difference was observed. The results of this study show that sports discipline and the athlete’s gender is effective in motivating athletes’ continuation and commitment to a physical activity.