Success in Professional Sport: Specifying the Concept

The article is dedicated to clarifying the concept of “success” in relation to elite (high-performance) sport. It is established that success in elite sport begins with a prize-winning place in a continental or subcontinental tournament recognized by the International Olympic Committee and/or held under the auspices of the largest organization in a given sport. This minimum is identified while studying more than 100 scientific papers and official documents (laws, decrees, regulations, programs). Considering this “lower limit”, the key ways to overcome a country’s sports isolation are outlined: 1) defending the right to participate in the main traditional competitions (at least continental or subcontinental); 2) raising the status of a country’s own tournaments and sports organizations to make them the largest in the world.