An Analysis of Sports Policies Leading to Elite Sport Competitiveness: A Case Study of Iran as a Developing Country

The international competition for success in the Olympic Games and World Championships often causes some countries to fall short of winning medals, highlighting the importance of competitiveness in elite sports. Accordingly, this study aimed to analyze sports policies that affect elite sports competitiveness in the Islamic Republic of Iran. The study had two phases. In the first phase, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 experts, including sports management professors, administrators, coaches, athletes, and media professionals, until theoretical saturation was reached, identifying policies related to elite sport competitiveness. In the second phase, 12 sports management professors completed a pairwise comparison questionnaire based on the identified policies. Data were analyzed using the Total Interpretive Structural Modelling method to establish the hierarchical influence structure of these policies. Five elite Iranian sports were studied: wrestling, weightlifting, taekwondo, kabaddi, and futsal. Eight policies were identified and positioned as follows: level 6-financing methods; level 5-participation rate; level 4-coaching development, professional athlete support, and training facility adequacy; level 3-talent identification; level 2-competition experience; and level 1-elite sport competitiveness. Additionally, MICMAC analysis placed financing methods and participation rate in the "driver" quadrant; coaching development, athlete support, and training facilities in the "linkage" quadrant; and talent identification, competition experience, and elite sport competitiveness in the "dependent" quadrant of the driving power-dependence matrix. The model shows that sufficient financing and broader participation enable coaching development, professional support, and adequate training facilities, which strengthen talent identification and competition experience, ultimately leading to elite-sport competitiveness in Iran.