ABSTRACT
The aim of this chapter is twofold. The first aim is to examine the amount and structure of funds that the Republic of Croatia invested in their athletes through the Croatian Olympic Committee (COC) during the period from 2003 to 2016. Additionally, a hypothesis that international success of Croatian athletes at various World Championships (WCs) and Summer Olympic Games (SOGs) was positively correlated with state funds aimed for financing of these competitions was tested. The chapter uses data from the annual financial statements of COC, since the funds from the state budget are planned and implemented in the unified COC financial plan. An analysis of income and expenses showed no evident trend of growth or decline. COC’s expenses consist of several categories appearing on a regular basis. However, in this chapter only expenses whose aim is to finance the preparations and participation of Croatian athletes at international sport events were analysed (National Federation’s (NFs)/National Association’s (NA’s) regular programmes and special programme projects). Correlation analysis showed no statistically significant correlation between total amount of expenses aimed for financing participation of Croatian athletes at various WCs and SOGs and medals won at these competitions. However, a more detailed analysis including other variables (other sources of financing, other championships, expanding the data on achieved international success to encompass results from first to eighth place, etc.) as well as deeper analysis of the structure of these funds is needed. The most important limitations of the study were missing data from some federations.
