Introduction
An elite athlete development system refers to a process whereby a significant period of time is taken to nurture young talents so that they can develop into elite athletes in their respective sporting activities. These games range from football, athletics, swimming, tennis, basketball, and much more. The process mainly focuses on the continual improvement of skills and understanding of the game. All the coaches in this process are ultimately improving and preparing players so that they can move to the next stage of development. Who will be the next Lionel Messi, Tiger Woods or even Venus Williams? With the correct amount of training, coaching, and hard work, anyone can become a superstar. There is a certain aura about talented athletes, due to their master of the sport and the skills that they display. This paper explores the comparison of elite athlete development systems between Croatia and Argentina. The structure of each system, strengths and weaknesses will be explained in detail.
Structure of Each Country
Argentina
Argentina is famous mainly in soccer and rugby. Both the rugby and football teams have represented the nation at the world championships. This is a clear indication that the country’s athlete development structure is fair enough. The country’s athlete development structure is mainly composed of academies of various sports that nurture and develop young talent (Biagio, 2008). Most of these academies are private; the government sponsors a few. Sports personalities such as Diego Maradona have set up schools to develop talent for the future.
Argentina is one of the world’s major exporters of football talent. Over the last few years, many world class players have moved abroad mainly to Europe to play professional football. The structure of the academies is in such a way that children will start to join from the age of nine. Stepwise development continues and as from the age of twelve the boys will start to play matches. Tournaments at this age are very important as they are used to gauge the development of the youth system.
Additionally, the structure of the Paralympic section is enjoying growth and development. Its organization is being improved so as to reach the Para-sports. This is done by the National Paralympic Committee NPC. Since Argentina is a country that covers a large geographical area, the Paralympic Committee is committed to setting centers of athlete recruitment so that more athletes can be brought on board. Setting up these centers in each part of the country helps to link coaches and physical educators who want to be involved with the Para-athletes team. This structure is likely to benefit many generations of elite athletes (Mcelroy, 2015).
Croatia
Croatia is a major sporting nation in Europe with elite athletes mainly in football and athletics. The football team has taken part in various European championships and world cups while the athletics team has taken part in Olympic Games. Elite athlete development structure in Croatia starts in schools. In this nation sport is part of the curriculum and is compulsory in schools. It has been implemented at all levels of education. As a result, a smooth structure is set to develop elite athletes. Many people both young and old participate in extracurricular sporting activities. These activities are viewed by many as a way of life ("Sport", n.d.).
Comparisons of the Systems
In both the systems were developed so that they can help to develop the raw upcoming talent and nurture it to become elite athletes. For instance, Argentina is known to produce world class football players while Croatia has developed world class athletes who have dominated Olympic games by winning medals. In addition to that, the systems enroll people at a young age so they can develop them into world class athletes. In Argentina, children join soccer academies from the age of twelve while in Croatia it is compulsory for all the school going children to participate in sporting activities. From these events, young talents are identified and nurtured to become elite athletes. Moreover, both the state and private sector are involved in the elite athlete development process. These two institutions support the system mainly through funding and promotion. Whereas in Croatia the support begins right at school, in Argentina the support is immense at the sporting academies. Another similarity is that various groups and committees are set up to take control of the system and monitor the development process of each game. For example, there are federations for football that monitor the development of soccer athletes in each country, Olympics body that oversees developments in Olympics section, rugby body that oversees the elite development of rugby players and so much more.
Contrast of the Systems
In contrast, the elite athlete development system in Argentina is mainly focused on building elite footballers. This is evidenced by the number of football players that are playing abroad especially in the top flight leagues of England, Spain, and Germany. Whereas in Croatia the system is not focused as such in exporting its elite soccer stars. Most of its players are locally based, meaning they play for the local clubs of their country. Secondly, there is a wide belief that European nations have a lot of money. Therefore, they will be able to support their elite athlete development systems whatever the cost. Croatia is a no exception. Good and modern facilities have been developed to help nurture young talent into world superstars. In contrast, Argentina, a South American country is a third world country. Money is not enough to construct modern facilities. The few modern facilities that are available are either congested, or some are out of order. This is the main reason you find many young children playing their football on the streets rather than a football pitch. Such a scenario leads to losing of talent because not so many people can be recognized from the streets in spite of the fact that a large pool of talent is being wasted on the streets. With this, many children move abroad to seek modern facilities for elite development.
Strengths of Argentina’s Structure
Through embracing soccer, Argentina has natured the talented footballers. Many of them are playing in the international big leagues in England, Italy, USA, France and Spain among many others. This structure has given the inhabitants the opportunity to showcase their talents to the world. The structure has allowed the sports department to improve the Paralympic to meet the international standards of sporting activities. This will ensure more people with talents in this category are well catered for during international competitions anywhere in the world. This will increase Argentina’s participants raising its hopes of performing better as compared to other nations. The elite athletics development system has allowed the private sector to come into play by sponsoring some of the sporting activities undertaken. For instance, the great hero of football, Diego Maradona mentioned above is sponsoring a sports talent academy where youngsters develop their talents to merge with the international standards. This private sponsorship together with government sponsorship has made Argentina to succeed well in the field of sport (Biagio, 2008).
Weaknesses of the Argentina’s Structure
The poverty in Argentina does not guarantee its inhabitants with good elite athlete facilities. This has made many talented youngsters to migrate to other places where they can find them. This is a blow to the nation when it comes to completion in sports, whereby they will have a shortage of good athletes to compete. The structure is favoring football to a large extent sidelining other sporting activities. This has buried the talents of many other people who might not be talented in the football (Shibli, De Bosscher, Van Bottenburg, & Westerbeek, 2013).
Strengths of Croatia’s Structure
The newly developed structure has given hope to the talented athletes to display their tactics. It has given many people the opportunity to embrace sports as a way of living. Many young stars have chosen to use their talent in generating income. These modern facilities have made the country to produce the top sports stars worldwide. The Croatian structure has allowed the creation of up of 16000 sports associations. These associations have contributed much to the prosperity of the sports sector in Croatia. Football is the most popular comprising of 1,500 registered clubs and thousands of participants. The huge number of clubs has fully catered for all the football talents across the nation. The structure has also allowed the Financing of the sporting activities by the government, public donations, private sponsors and membership fees ("Sport," n.d.). This has been essential because it has enabled the sports activities to prosper to greater heights. The elite athletics development system has also permitted the constitution of the Croatian Olympic Committee that is recognized as the largest sports association worldwide having eighty sports organizations that cover thirty-nine Olympic sports and forty-one non-Olympic sports.
Weaknesses of the Croatia’s Structure
The structure used by Croatia does not give talented footballers the opportunity to play in the top world leagues but rather encourage their local leagues. This will never give them morale to showcase their talent; they rather choose other sports that can give them fame in the world. Since football is the most popular sport in this country, the structure tends to favor it sidelining other sporting activities. This has killed other talents in the nation (Shibli et al., 2013).
Conclusion
References
Mcelroy, J. (2015). Argentinian para-sport experiences positive progress. Paralympic.org. Retrieved 4 May 2016, from https://www.paralympic.org/news/argentinian-para-sport-experiences- positive-progress
Biagio, J. (2008). Sport in Argentina: a Footballing industry that must face up to an. The Independent. Retrieved 4 May 2016, from http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and- comment/sport-in-Argentina-footballing-industry-that-must-face-up-to-an-export-crisis- 781372.html
Shibli, S., De Bosscher, V., Van Bottenburg, M., & Westerbeek, H. (2013). Measuring performance and success in elite sports. Managing High-Performance Sport, 30-45.
Sport. Croatia.eu. Retrieved 4 May 2016, from http://croatia.eu/article.php?lang=2&id=51
