Bryan Charbonnet

Traditionally, youth elite sport has been created to help elite sport systems achieve growth in terms of performance results. After repeated concerns about well-being , it is now often seen as socially unsustainable . But what would a sustainable youth elite sport look like? To explore it, we draw on two perspectives beyond sport science: Kate Raworth's sustainability science Doughnut and Hartmut Rosa's relational sociology of the good life. Both address the same underlying problem as is found in sport: the pursuit of endless growth in finite systems. As will be analysed in this article, the escalatory logics of late modern Western societies produce an ecological crisis at the planetary level, an alienation crisis at the societal level and an ethical crisis in youth elite sport. The Doughnut framework is described as a compass to guide humanity out of the ecological crisis, while the concept of resonance offers a way to address the crisis of cultural and social alienation. Assuming that similar problems can inspire similar solutions, we combine these perspectives and develop the ‘resonant Doughnut’ for sustainable youth elite sport. Our model proposes resonance as a new normative ideal. It also opens three analytical spaces – resonance, critical degradation of youth elite sport and critical human deprivation – to define what sustainable youth elite sport is, and what it is not.

Traditionally, sport science has been framed around two modes of research: basic research, aimed at fundamental understanding, and applied research, focused on consideration of use. Drawing on current debates in the philosophy of science, we identify and articulate problem-oriented sport science as a complementary research mode that seeks to advance both fundamental understanding and consideration of use—in pursuit of a better sport. We examine three contemporary tensions: interdisciplinarity versus disciplinarity; enlightened integration versus superficial aggregation; and value-freeness versus value-ladeness. Finally, we outline four practical consequences of problem-oriented thinking for research practice, higher education, university policy, and the identity of the academic field.

This study examines the long-term training progression of one of the top ten alpine skiers of all time, following his pathway from his first ski day to Olympic gold. Using a longitudinal mixed-method case study, we analyzed 24 years of prospectively recorded on-snow training days, ski-specific participation and performance milestones, and general fitness test results from ages 11 to 18, complemented by a retrospective interview with the athlete's father. The athlete began skiing at the age of 2.2 years old, with early training centered on playful free skiing and task-oriented activities such as unicycling and slacklining. He did not participate in other organized sports. Summer glacier training was deliberately delayed and limited to preserve motivation, and annual ski days peaked between ages 15 and 18. Periods of minor injury and overreaching coincided with high training loads. Although he achieved early success both on and off the snow, he did not fully dominate until adulthood and struggled internationally during puberty, likely due to late maturation and limited deliberate practice. This case demonstrates how a perfect fit between the athlete's characteristics, training, and environment contributed to his success. These findings do not suggest a universal pathway for alpine skiing development, but rather a pattern of training, environment, and social factors that change throughout development to achieve exceptional performance in adulthood.

This study advances knowledge on what constitutes a 'good' talent development environment for career outcomes, by examining the combined influence of the parent-coach-system from a relational perspective and a person-oriented methodology. We followed 105 Swiss elite youth football players, who completed validated questionnaires at the U13 (2011) and the U14 level (2012) to assess the perceived environment (parent behaviour: Praise and Understanding, Directive Behaviour, Pressure; coach behaviour: Social Support, Positive Feedback, Democratic Behaviour). Their adult professional football level was assessed in 2023. Cluster analysis revealed four stable types of athletes across both time points. Two significant transitions emerged: the athlete type who perceived low levels across all variables had a lower probability of turning professional, whereas the athlete type characterised by parental praise and understanding combined with directive behaviour and some pressure, alongside low positive feedback and social support but involvement in decision-making had a higher probability of reaching the professional level. These findings underscore the importance of viewing the parent - coach system as an interconnected whole. They reveal compensation (e.g. stable parental praise and understanding buffering limited coach positive feedback) and complementation mechanisms (e.g. directive parental behaviours paired with democratic coaching) shaping athletes' long-term career outcomes.

This paper situates talent identification research in sport science within the broader context of developmental science, offering a conceptual framework informed by two (meta-)theoretical worldviews: the Cartesian-split-mechanistic and processual-relational worldviews. Al-though these worldviews are not explicitly named in the field of talent identification research, we demonstrate their implicit adoption through theoretical and methodological discourse. After comparing applications, benefits, and limitations of each worldview, we briefly discuss whether their bodies of knowledge are incompatible, competitive, or complementary. We suggest each worldview provides complementary insights with a penchant for generating nomothetic and group-specific and type-specific and idiographic knowledge, respectively.

This study examines the training (age at club entry, hours in club practice, free play, other sports) and environmental characteristics (popularity, media coverage, school and parental support) influencing the development of female Swiss national team players in elite football over a three-decade period. A retrospective questionnaire was completed by 87 participants, who were divided into three cohorts based on their first game with the Swiss national team (C1 = until 2000, n = 24; C2 = 2001-2010, n = 29; C3 = 2011-2022, n = 31). ANOVAs were employed to compare the cohorts regarding training and environmental variables. The findings demonstrate better perceived environmental conditions, stagnating volume of free play and other sports across cohorts, decreasing age at club entry, and increasing club practice and total training volume. Practical implications highlight talent development avenues in unstructured settings during free time and in the micro-structure of club practice.

A central, yet still unresolved, question about optimal youth talent development asks whether children should specialize and train systematically in one sport— early specialization—or gain different playful experiences in several sports— early sampling. Based upon theoretical considerations, we problematize dichotomous discussions and offer a complex 2 × 2 × 3 question cuboid differentiating between two goals (performance in adulthood and positive youth development), two continuum-based dimensions (task-specificity and exercise mode), and three perspectives (nomothetic, group-specific, and idiographic). Accordingly, resolving the question about optimal youth talent development involves assembling answers derived from 12 different questions. Through our theoretical contribution, we identified several nomothetic principles offering stakeholders initial recommendations and orientations to estimate the appropriate need for high task-specificity and exercise mode in relation to each goal. We suggest adapting these recommendations according to group-specific characteristics, such as sport and age, and idiographic fine-tuning according to children's biopsychosocial characteristics.