Systems and athletes: Integrating the micro- and meso-level approaches to athlete development and success

Abstract

Without their individual talent, elite athletes like Maria Sharapova, Tiger Woods, Veronica Campbell and Inge De Brujin would have not developed their impressive sporting careers. However talented, athletes’ successes are not possible without: the network of sports clubs where they develop as athletes; the training and competition opportunities they are offered; the guidance from coaches, physiotherapists, doctors, dieticians and sports scientists they frequently require; and the support services they receive from national governing bodies, governments, Olympic Committees and/or private partners that make a sporting career an attainable and attractive option for athletes (De Bosscher et al. in press). Talent, whether it is in sport, arts, economy or science, is an individual quality that can be fully expressed only in a specific social environment and with the support of others (van Bottenburg 2009). In other words, people are not born as athletes; they need to invest great amounts of time and devotion to their sport, and to be surrounded by a team of people and support services that nurture that talent. Over the years, the interplay between nature and nurture has raised questions among researchers and policy makers on the extent to which success at international competitions can be developed. The factors that determine elite success can be examined at three levels: macro-, meso-, and micro-level (De Bosscher et al. 2006). Macro-level factors are the social and cultural contexts in which people live, including economic welfare, population, geographic and climatic variation, degree of urbanisation, political system, and cultural system. Research showed that over 50% of the international success of countries is explained mainly by three variables: population, wealth (expressed as Gross Domestic Product per capita) and (former) Communism (e.g., De Bosscher 2007). These factors are relatively stable and cannot be influenced by human impact. Meso-level factors are the sport policies of nations (e.g., policies on coach development, policies on talent identification and selection). Micro-level factors relate to the individual athletes (genetic qualities) and their close environment (e.g., parents, friends and coaches). At the micro-level, some factors can be controlled (e.g., training techniques) and others cannot (e.g., genetics).