Connection between State Funding and International Sporting Success: The Case of Croatia

Abstract The aim of this paper is to determine the types and intensity of connection between the amount of state funding for various programmes in sport invested by Croatian Olympic Committee from 2001 until 2016 and international sporting success of Croatian athletes. A connection between 12 independent variables (funds invested in 33 summer Olympic sports (24 individual and 9 team sports) broken down in 8 specific programmes, as well as the number of athletes and coaches in different programmes) and international sporting success was tested using regression analysis. The results show statistically significant logarithm connection between success and total funds invested (ACR=0.160, R2=0.319, p=0.001). Additionally, three variables showed linear, eight logarithm and one quadratic type of connection. Applying different regression models contributes to better understanding of connection between the amount and direction of investments in high performance sport and result of those investments in the form of achieved international sporting success.