Talent Development Environment in Nigeria: Athletes’ Perceptions of Barriers, Opportunities and Facilitators

Abstract

Environmental factors have been considered as critical to successful talent development in sports. The entire backgrounds of development including the home, school, community and the organizational culture in sport should provide consistent and coherent support for the developing champions if the goal of effective talent development is to be realised. This study explored the nature of talent development environment in Nigerian in order to uncover the barriers, opportunities and facilitators of effective talent development in the country. Eight successful national athletes were interviewed. Inductive analysis revealed the barriers (e.g. family barriers, finance, facilities, lack of regular competitions, issues with injury/rehabilitation), opportunities (e.g. luck, school sport, early senior participation) and facilitators of development (e.g. hard work, peer influence, coach-athlete relationship). It was suggested that the barriers be mitigated by encouraging the relevant parties (e.g. parents, governments) to promote an enabling environment for talent development in sport. Recommendation was made for further studies.