Identification of Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats for Talent Identification in Iran Championship Sport and Its Bottlenecks and Challenges

The aim of this paper was to identify the strengths، weaknesses، opportunities and threats of talent identification in championship sport of I. R. Iran and to examine its bottlenecks and challenges. For data collection، the documents and related literature were reviewed، council meetings were held and a researcher-made questionnaire and SWOT analysis were used. 256 subjects including 13 managers and members of executive board of National Olympic Committee، 5 managers of National Olympic and Para-Olympic Academy، 9 managers from championships، 9 experts from talent identification center of Physical Education Organization، 52 heads of sport federations، 30 managers and heads of championship and talent identification centers of provinces، 52 national team coaches، 20 elites and 86 members of faculties who were expert in championship sport were selected as the sample of the study. Using Delphi method، council meetings and several stages of strategic analysis، 4 strengths، 13 weaknesses، 4 opportunities and 7 threats were identified and ranked based on Friedman statistical test. In addition، the results showed that talent identification faced with bottlenecks and challenges including the sport managers and authorities'' attitudes towards school sport as the basis of championship، the activity of championship sport institutes and talent identification centers، the participation of public section in talent identification of championship sport، the activity of sport clubs to grow talent، the effect of political issues on the function of organizations and institutions responsible for talent identification، lack of a comprehensive system to support elite athletes and coaches، lack of competency to determine sport managers and coaches، lack of an integrated، administrative and structured plan in talent identification of the economic status of the talented families، limitations on women’s sport، facilities and proper equipment for talent identification and sport polarization in different areas of the country. It is recommended to develop a proper strategic program، to select proper solutions in order to use strengths and opportunities، to eliminate weaknesses and threats and to help to reduce the effects of some of these bottlenecks and challenges on the function of talent identification in championship sport.