Abstract
Introduction
Global increase in competitive sport and sporting success has encouraged a need for adoption of strategic high performance sport policies. Despite South Africa showing progress through sporting performance and success at various Summer Olympic Games since 1992, a vast number of challenges concerning the development and growth of mass sport participation, as well as the development of elite sport policy systems still exist and need to be explored further. The purpose of the study is to explore the support systems that have contributed to the successes as well as the challenges faced by elite athletes from historically disadvantaged areas (HDAs) and have represented South Africa at the Summer Olympic Games. Methods A mixed-methods study design comprising both qualitative and quantitative methods was selected for the study. The quantitative study design was selected to conduct a gap analysis on the state of elite athlete support systems within HDAs across 21 national sport federations (NSFs) which have Olympic sporting codes. A qualitative study design was employed to investigate the perceptions of elite athletes (n=15) and coaches (n=10) on the support systems that enabled athletes to be successful in their respective codes. Descriptive statistics were employed to analyse quantitative data by measuring variability through means, standard deviations, frequencies and percentages using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS version 27.0) (IBM Corp, Armonk, NY). The ATLAS.ti (version 22) software tool was used to analyse qualitative data. All data captured in qualitative form was analysed using data coding. A thematic analysis and framework were applied to the data after coding.
Results
In terms of the overall availability of support systems for elite sport in NSFs, majority of NSFs reported highest availability in the following pillars of support: opportunities for international competitions with a mean of 15.2 ± 10.4; governance, organisation and sport policy structure with a mean of 14.8 ± 18.9; coach provision and development with a mean of 14.6 ± 11.4. Among the lowest reported in availability of support systems were financial resources with a mean of 11.6 ± 8.89; mean scientific support 11.8 ± 7.16; and post-athletic career support with a mean of 11.8 ± 6.61. Among the lowest means reported toward HDAs were financial resources with a mean of 9.8 ± 10.5; post-athletic career support as well as sports training
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facilities sharing a mean of 9.6 ± 9.4; and scientific support with a mean of 7.8 ± 9.1. The majority of athletes reported insufficient financial support from government, NSFs, and sponsorship at development level making the other structures of support even more difficult to acquire. Most athletes cited poor school sport systems in townships and rural areas; transport challenges to and from training and competitions; lack of scientific support, medical, high performance support; lack of a variety of sports, with soccer and netball being most popular in townships; poor talent identification and development systems; lack of mentorship and career guidance for post-career life; inadequate, overcrowded and poor state maintenance of sports in HDAs; as well as lack of support for development and volunteer coaches. These were the major constraints that had to be overcome throughout sport careers.
Conclusion
The study concluded by establishing a conceptual framework based on the findings. It was found that although NSFs have inadequate funding support they excel in terms of governance, organisation, and sports policy, since they have both administrative and competition structures in place from local, provincial and national levels that provide a clear pathway for athletes to compete, with the opportunity to represent their country internationally. It was recommended that government through its allocation of annual and conditional grants to NSFs, should provide adequate financial support to elite sport programmes in order to sustain the sporting needs of athletes. Government should also introduce incentives for corporates that invest in sport participation within HDAs. Furthermore, government policy should place more emphasis on inclusivity of sport within HDAs. Future studies should also compare the support systems provided to elite athletes from HDAs in South Africa against other countries with a similar history and GDP. Further studies should also explore support systems within sporting codes that do not form part of the Olympic structure.
Keywords: National sport federations; support systems; historically disadvantaged areas; elite athletes; sporting success.