Managing Elite Sports Systems and the Development of Athletes

Without talent, athletes like Simone Bayles, Michael Phelps, Ole Einar Bjoerndalen, Peter Sagan, Nafi Tiam or Neymar would never have enjoyed the level of success that they achieved in their impressive sporting careers, nor would countless other elite athletes around the globe. But it has not been talent alone that made them win medals and championships. They grew up in sporting clubs where training and competition opportunities honed their skills; where the guidance from coaches, physiotherapists, doctors, dieticians and sports scientists improved their performance and enhanced the physical and mental readiness; and where the support services from national governing bodies, governments, Olympic Committees and/or private partners made working towards a sporting career more attractive. Talent, whether it is in sport, arts, sciences, or other life endeavours, is an individual quality that can only be fully expressed in a specific social environment and with the support of others. In other words, people are not born as an athlete, they need to invest great time, energy, resources and passion to their sport, surrounded by people and organisations who provide a range of support services (van Bottenburg et al. 2012). This is what can be identified as the management of elite sport systems aiming to develop athletes. It is concerned with identifying, measuring and developing the performance of athletes and teams, and aligning their performance with the strategic goals of a sport organisation or nation. The management of elite sport can be defined as the process of (a) understanding what is to be achieved (planning), (b) developing the capacity of people and organisations to achieve it (capacity building and leading) and (c) providing the required support (resourcing) (Sotiriadou and De Bosscher 2018). This chapter focusses mainly on the management of national elite sport systems and the determinants that can influence international sporting success at macro, meso and micro levels. From this, the findings will illustrate how nations seem to manage homogeneous elite sport resources but with various ways of strategy/policy implementation. In addition to this ‘inside out’ view of elite sport systems, the final section pays attention to an ‘outside in view’, whereby understanding the market and market changes is important to determine strategies.

ISBN:9780028665030

Keywords:SPLISS, elite sport systems, elite sport policies, Olympic success