Types of sports competitions

The msot typical task of the job of any sports manager is to organize a variety of sports events, most often matches, races and competitions.

In most cases the organizational-methodological tasks are similar, this is why first  the genera problems of this field will be overviewed. Later the specificities of other sporting events will be considered, too.  It needs to be taken into account whether the event in question is a simple and low-scale event, including local championships, student races, or national championships, or it is a complex several-day-long event, a grand-scale sports festival, a continental or world championship.

First the organizational questions and strategies of simple sports events will be overviewed. When organizing this type of events the system to be applied needs to be clarified first. In order to do this the classification of sports events needs to be considered. The division is as follows:

1.   By types of sports: athletics, gymanstics, basketball etc.

2.   Within the same type there are subdivisions: e.g. athletics: throwing, jumping etc.  

3.   By types of competitions:

• • Local events (with sports club members as participants)
  • ’Friendly’ sports events (unofficial meetings, the aim is to prepare for championships),
  • Events by invitation only (conditions are setby the inviting party)
  • Events with exclusion (certain sportspeopel are not allowed to participate),
  • Regional championships (e.g. county-level, district-level etc.)
  • National championships and competitions (to decide on the ’national champion’ title ),
  • International events (with sports club members from different countries as participants),
  • International competitions (the national teams of different countries participate)

4.   By the nature of the event:

• • Individual sports: participants enter, participate and are evaluated as individuals. There are some individual complex events as well. European Men’s gymnastics championship.
  • Team sports:
    • Team consisting of individuals (field run CSB, where team members have individual sresults ),
    • Joint team events (ball games, in which team members have one result)
    • Individual team (pentathlon): individual results are evaluated and awrded but team result is calculated on the basis of the individuals’ placements.

 5.   By the characteristics of participants:

• • By gender
  • By age group (e.g. Student Olympics Age group I. children, adolescent, junior, adult)
  • By qualification (I., II., III., gold-, silver-, bronze medalist, black, white belt etc. )
  • By weight group

 6.   By organization system:

• • Elimination system (elimination after the 1st, 2nd defeat),
  • Round match system (every participant meets every other participant – possible only if there is a small number of participants),
  • Mixed type of events (begin with the elimination system and it is followed by the round system, or vice versa.)
  • One or two round systems (e.g. football),
  • Cup system (everybody can participate, independently of category)