Successful elite sport policies: an international comparison in 15 nations.

This book presents the results of an international comparative project on elite sport policies from 15 nations worldwide: Australia, Belgium (separated by Flanders and Wallonia), Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, France, Finland, Japan, South-Korea, the Netherlands, Northern Ireland (as part of the United Kingdom), Portugal, Spain and Switzerland. The focus is on the relationship between policies and international sporting success and, accordingly, insights into the factors that shape elite sport policies and the pathways to success in different nations. The project was set up in 2009 following the success of the original SPLISS project 2003-2008. The second edition of the project is reflected in the name SPLISS 2.0 (Sports Policy factors Leading to International Sporting Success), an international network of research collaboration in high performance sport policy. Scientifically, the project is unique first and foremost because of its theoretical model of nine pillars and over 100 Critical Success factors that are compared; second because of its mixed methods methodology to measure the competitive position of nations and to move beyond a descriptive level of comparison (using a scoring system); and third because of the involvement of the main stakeholders in the policy evaluation, through surveys with over 3000 elite athletes, over 1300 elite coaches and more than 240 Performance Directors in the 15 nations. Furthermore, its uniqueness lies in its wide international network, by a collaboration of 58 researchers, who funded their own research contribution or collaborated voluntarily, and 33 policy partners worldwide.