ABSTRACT
It may be agreed that to compete with others and try to reach the highest possible level of performance is the main objective and the core rationale of the whole sport system (Tangen, 2004). In this respect sport systems may be compared to art systems as both are usually characterised by inexorable selection, competition and hierarchies (Mangset, 2004). 1 While our concern is with high performance sport our focus is less on the fully commercialised sports, such as English football and Canadian ice hockey, and more on the sports, most Olympic sports for example, that depend more on voluntary efforts and state support at the elite level.
