ABSTRACT

This chapter examines the contemporary context of elite youth sport with an emphasis on the identification and analysis of interests of selected stakeholders that shape the development of elite youth sport systems. The institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the World Bank are acknowledged to exert substantial influence on domestic economic policy, it is argued that international sport organisations such as the major international sport federations, the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the Commonwealth Games Federation strongly influence domestic sport policy particularly at the elite level. The attitude of national Olympic committees (NOCs) and national governing bodies of sport (NGBs) towards elite youth sport competition and the capacity of those actors to influence the emerging context is assessed through the study of three national governing bodies of sport and the NOCs in Norway and the UK.