The role of national competitions in the athlete development pathway of athletes

This study aims to examine the importance of making national competitions a milestone in the development of athletes that contribute to improving international competitiveness.This study focuses on the National Sports Festival, which is included in the Sport Basic Plan, as it contributes to improving competitiveness by discovering and developing promising athletes.The research question was set as to how national sports federations with excellent results in international competitions position national competitions in the athlete development pathway.Data were collected through semistructured interviews with the staff involved in the management of national sports federation competitions and those responsible for athlete development.Steps for Coding and Theorization (SCAT) were used to analyze the collected data.Only superficial meanings can be interpreted from raw data; however, by conducting a SCAT analysis, the data can be decontextualized and recontextualized by constructing codes extracted from the context into a storyline, enabling to interpret in-depth meanings.The results suggested that for national competitions to function as a factor promoting athlete development, the following points should be considered: 1) they can identify promising athletes; 2) they are linked to international competitions; and 3) they overcome the differences in perspectives between national sports federations and local stakeholders.