First effects of the elite sports development program on the related sports

Abstract

After the change of the socialist political system in 1989, the Hungarian government tried to carry out different sport strategies to maintain its success in elite sport and modernise the sport system at the same time. In 2013, the Hungarian government introduced a sport finance program to support the most successful sports with extra financial support. The aim of this project is to increase the number of sportsmen, juniors and professionals in sport, and to achieve more and better results at different international tournaments (e.g. Olympic Games, world cups and championships). Four years after the program was introduced, we can evaluate the first results. In general the number of athletes increased, especially the juniors (by 25%), so did the number of coaches, but the change is not very significant, and there are differences among the sports. The results of these sports continuously declined in the past three Olympic periods, therefore the efficiency of the program is so far not evident. It would be very important to use indicators regarding the quality of coaching and developing, and after the next Olympic period a new evaluation will be more telling.