ABSTRACT
Without her individual talent, Tia Hellebaut would never have developed her impressive high jumping career, nor would Pieter van Den Hoogenband his swimming career or innumerable elite athletes their career in a range of other sports. But neither would they have done so without the network of sports clubs where they developed as athletes; without the training and competition opportunities; without the guidance from coaches, physiotherapists, doctors, dieticians and sports scientists; without the support services from national governing bodies, governments, Olympic Committees and/or private partners, who made the athletic career more attractive for athletes. Talent, whether it is in sport, arts, economy or science, is an individual quality that can only be fully expressed in a specific social environment and with the support of others (Van Bottenburg 2009). Over the years, this has raised questions among researchers and policy makers about the extent to which success at international competitions can be affected by policy. Nations are searching for the ways to increase success by investing strategically in elite sport development (De Bosscher et al. 2008). As the supply of success at dominant international competitions (such as the Olympic Games) remains essentially fixed in the future (e.g. the IOC has indicated that it would like the number of events to be capped at around 300), and the demand for success is increasing (more nations taking part and more nations winning medals), the ‘market’ adjusts by raising the ‘price of success’ (Shibli 2003). As the competition gets stronger, nations will have to invest even more just to maintain their success. This has led to what Oakley and Green (2001b) called a global sporting arms race. During the last decennium, this global sporting arms race has intensified considerably. Research has shown that many nations have invested substantially in high-performance sport, even doubling budgets over a four-year cycle, without obtaining a return on their investment in terms of international performances (De Bosscher et al. 2008a; Van Bottenburg 2009). This makes policy makers even more aware of the need for a thorough search for effectiveness and efficiency in their management processes and policies. The Olympic Games have evolved from a competition among individuals to a competition among nations. Elite sports have become a business, where nations are searching for a competitive advantage and where the rules are determined by what rival nations do.
