Investment by the state and commercial partners in elite sports is of great importance for sporting success at international championships. For that reason, it was extremely gratifying that the Salling Foundations chose to donate DKK 60 million at the end of 2023 to Team Denmark in the period 2025-2028, while Kirkbi, which is owned by the Lego family Kirk Kristiansen, supported the same amount in the period shortly before the 2024 Olympics. And a few days ago, the Government announced that Team Denmark by the Finance Act 2025 will receive a total of DKK 35 million extra in 2027 and 2028 to support Danish athletes in the lead up to the 2028 Olympics in L.A. Danish elite sports thus enter a new Olympiad significantly strengthened financially, where according to Team Denmark’s strategy and support concept 2025-2028 “… there is a clear tendency towards stagnation in Denmark’s level of international results at the same time as many other countries invest significant funds in elite sports and win more and more medals”. The stagnation was also expressed at the 2024 Olympics, where 9 medals were less than both Rio 2016 (15) and Tokyo 2020 (11). However, in my opinion, it was far more worrying that Denmark’s top-8 ranking points of 103 in Paris were significantly less than the last 3 Olympic Games (London 2012: 148, Rio 2016: 135 and Tokyo 2020: 135). Top-8 ranking points are the best indicator in relation to how many athletes and teams and which sports are in the “fight for medals”.
The 2024 Olympics – Illogical connection between resources and results
The Olympic Games are for the majority of federations that enter into cooperation agreements with Team Denmark, the “final exam” in the 4-year cooperation period. Financial resources and expert services are largely focused on achieving satisfactory Olympic results, which is far from being successful for everyone in Paris. The biggest surprise was that many of the sports which have been allocated the most financial resources over the past 3 years – e.g. rowing, sailing, cycling, swimming, athletics and kayaking – did not meet the performance targets. On the other hand, sports such as handball, badminton, dressage, wrestling and table tennis did, as well as parasport at the 2024 Paralympics. It was equally surprising that the 20-year-old taekwondo fighter Edi Hrnic from Roedovre Taekwondo Club won Olympic bronze medal without the Danish Taekwondo Federation having a cooperation agreement with Team Denmark in the period leading up to the 2024 Olympics.
Team Denmark’s new strategy contains many qualities
Denmark is one of the very few countries in the world where elite sports are enshrined in legislation. The Elite Sports Act states that Team Denmark’s primary objective is to develop Danish elite sports in a socially responsible manner. The public self-governing institution must, in collaboration with the National Olympic Committee and Sports Confederation of Denmark (DIF), the federations of DIF, and other relevant partners, initiate, coordinate and streamline common measures within 12 specific areas of action. It also appears from the Elite Sports Act that it is Team Denmark’s task “…to focus and prioritize the areas of effort based on a support concept that describes what and who can obtain direct and/or indirect support”. Team Denmark’s support concept, which covers a 4-year period, thus describes criteria for the cooperation between the individual federations and Team Denmark. “Strategy and support concept 2025-2028”, which has just been adopted by the institution’s board and published, contains many qualities and deserves praise. The concept is not just a “copy” of previous editions, but contains both good visions and new concrete initiatives. I am particularly excited about two clear and unambiguous announcements. Firstly, it is emphasized that “… there is a need to increase the quality and efforts in Danish elite sports. That is why Team Denmark is sharpening its focus and priorities”. Secondly, the forward-looking strategic priorities rest on a strong analysis of the outside world. In my opinion, Danish elite sports must always be further developed from a comparative, international perspective. Viewing and knowledge sharing with nations such as Norway, the Netherlands, Ireland and New Zealand are very important, both in relation to the economy and framework conditions for athletes as well as expert services, elite coaching skills, technology and data as well as talent development.
Unclear distribution of roles and responsibilities about talent development
According to the Act on Elite Sports, Team Denmark is obliged to “… take care of talent recruitment and development”. And in particular, the revision of the law in 2004 assigned Team Denmark, through cooperation agreements with municipalities and dissemination of knowledge by the Age-Related Training Concept (ATK), a very decisive role in the talent work of the individual confederations. The quality of talent development in Danish sports has been significantly strengthened in recent decades, but there is a need for a new paradigm in this area of effort. There are good intentions in the upcoming support concept in relation to strengthening talent’s transition from Youth national to A national team through “… to establish a talent-to-elite transition program with sporting, educational and individual counseling for selected transition talents” and “… to support federations, coaches, elite municipalities and educational partners to strengthen the talent-to-elite transition”. But the distribution of roles and responsibilities between the many actors in relation to resources (finances and time) is far too diffuse and unclear. For that reason, there are significant “risks” that in the coming years Team Denmark will spend (altogether) too many financial resources on talent development, as the primary responsibility for talent recruitment and development in the future should, in my opinion, lie with the individual federations in cooperation with the National Olympic Committee and Sports Confederation of Denmark (DIF), and the elite municipalities.
Does Team Denmark have the courage for radical changes?
Team Denmark’s administration faces a very difficult task in the coming weeks and months, when the series of dialogue meetings with the individual federations will take place. It will be relatively easy to place the individual federations in three categories: World-class federations, Elite federations and Innovation-supported federations based on a number of objective criteria. It will be much more difficult when Team Denmark must determine the level of financial support, where both achieving results at international championships, including the 2024 Olympics, in the period 2022-2024 and not least medal and top-8 potential in both 2025-2028 and 2029-2032 are brought into play. The federations in Danish elite sports are very different, also in relation to the composition of costs. For that reason, it is also extremely difficult to compare Team Denmark’s level of support – both in relation to finances and indirect support in the form of equipment, material, training facilities, expert services and much more – to the individual federations. In my opinion, the most exciting thing about the upcoming dialogue meetings and the board’s decisions before 1 January 2025 will be whether the individual federations’ support will be continued with minor adjustments of 5-10% or whether Team Denmark, after professional analyzes and assessments, has the ability and courage to decide radical changes of 20-60% – both in a positive and negative direction – in the period 2025-2028.
