{{Short description|none}} {{More footnotes|date=March 2026}} '''High performance sport''' or '''elite sport''' is sport at the highest level of competition.
In sports administration, "high-performance sport", where the emphasis is on winning prestigious competitions, is distinguished from "mass sport" or "recreational sport", where the emphasis is on attracting the maximum number of participants. In team sports, the concept of high performance involves also team performance strategy and assessment.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Bouthier |first1=Daniel |last2=Godbout |first2=Paul |last3=Gréhaigne |first3=Jean-Francis |title=Performance Assessment in Team Sports |journal=Journal of Teaching in Physical Education |date=1997 |volume=16 |issue=4 |pages=500–516 |doi=10.1123/jtpe.16.4.500 |url=https://journals.humankinetics.com/view/journals/jtpe/16/4/article-p500.xml |access-date=20 July 2022|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
High-performance sport overlaps with the upper tiers of professional sport; within the realm of professional sport, the elite tiers of the sport are known, particularly in North America, as '''major leagues'''. On the other hand, elite competitors at the Olympic Games or World Games in some minority sports may be part-time or rely on government grants. Likewise, student athletes, especially in college sports, are often high performance despite being nominally amateurs.
Much research in sports psychology and sports medicine is motivated by the needs of elite rather than mass athletes. Doping in sport is more common at elite levels, and research into performance-enhancing substances has been fuelled by the drive for success, this despite the practice being firmly illegal at almost all levels of play.
Separate state agencies may be responsible for high-performance sport and for mass sport; national governing bodies for a particular sport often have separate administrative units for supporting elite athletes and the funding of athletes likely to win Olympic medals. In public policy, funding for high-performance sport may be justified for reasons of national prestige or as a marketing tool for encouraging mass sport. Eastern Bloc countries invested in elite sport during the Cold War for propaganda purposes; some Western countries began establishing '''Institutes of Sport''' from the 1980s, with '''sports academies''' for nurturing promising young athletes.
==See also== * Professional sports * Semi-professional sports * {{anl|The Sports Gene|''The Sports Gene''}}
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Further reading== * {{cite book|last1=Beamish|first1=Rob|last2=Ritchie|first2=Ian|title=Fastest, Highest, Strongest: A Critique of High-Performance Sport|url=https://archive.org/details/fastesthighestst0000beam|url-access=registration|access-date=18 August 2016|date=2006-09-27|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781135987084}} * {{cite book|last1=Bergsgard|first1=Nils Asle|last2=Houlihan|first2=Barrie|last3=Mangset|first3=Per|last4=Svein Ingve |first4=Nødland|last5=Hilmar |first5=Rommetvedt|title=Sport Policy|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1aosAuh-VgwC&pg=PA152|access-date=18 August 2016|date=2009-11-04|publisher=Butterworth-Heinemann|isbn=9781136364686|pages=152–199|chapter=High performance sport}} * {{cite journal|last=Green|first=Mick|year=2004|title=Changing policy priorities for sport in England: the emergence of elite sport development as a key policy concern|journal=Leisure Studies|volume=23|issue=4|pages=365–385|issn=0261-4367|doi=10.1080/0261436042000231646|s2cid=145048046}} * {{cite journal|last1=Grix|first1=Jonathan|first2=Fiona |last2=Carmichael|year=2012|title=Why do governments invest in elite sport? A polemic|journal=International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics|volume=4|issue=1|pages=73–90|issn=1940-6940|doi=10.1080/19406940.2011.627358|s2cid=153350698}} * {{cite journal|last1=Hanstad|first1=Dag Vidar|last2=Skille|first2=Eivind Å.|date=2010-03-31|title=Does elite sport develop mass sport? : a Norwegian case study|journal=Scandinavian Sport Studies Forum|publisher=Malmö University|issue=1|pages=51–68|hdl=11250/170845|url=http://www.sportstudies.org/content/vol_1_2010/051-068_vol_1_2010_hanstad-skille.pdf|access-date=2021-02-10|archive-date=2013-12-08|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131208113201/http://sportstudies.org/content/vol_1_2010/051-068_vol_1_2010_hanstad-skille.pdf|url-status=dead}} * {{cite journal|last=Pringle|first=Richard|year=2001|title=Examining the Justifications for Government Investment in High Performance Sport: A Critical Review Essay|journal=Annals of Leisure Research|volume=4|issue=1|pages=58–75|issn=1174-5398|doi=10.1080/11745398.2001.10600891|s2cid=154411069}} * {{cite book|last1=Sotiriadou|first1=Popi|last2=Bosscher|first2=Veerle De|title=Managing High Performance Sport|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d2BNfUG5hW0C|access-date=18 August 2016|year=2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9780415671958}}
Category:Sports business Category:Politics and sports Category:Sports science Category:National Institutes of Sport Category:Sports academies
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