Participant-Led Systems
A Roadmap for Sustainable Youth Sport Reform
Youth sport participation decline is not a behavioural problem. It is a system design problem.
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82% of Australian adults report experiencing at least one form of interpersonal violence in community sport.
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Participation peaks at 9–14, then declines sharply through adolescence.
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Physical inactivity is projected to cost USD $300 billion globally by 2030.
Participant-Led Systems reframe youth sport around retention, wellbeing and sustained engagement — participation, progression and performance outcomes follow.
The four drivers of a Participant-Led System.
Structural reform requires recalibrating measurement, economic framing, governance and design, together.
Why this matters now
The next phase of reform will not be defined by postiion statements or working groups.
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It will be defined by what boards measure, what governments fund, who shapes decisions and how systems design for diversity.
Who is this for?
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Government sport departments
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National and State sporting organisations
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Peak bodies and reform leaders
Summary:
Youth sport dropout persists because we've been addressing symptoms without fixing the underlying cause. Education and behavioural interventions can't work when the system itself remains fundamentally misaligned to participation outcomes.
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This framework identifies four ecosystem drivers that must shift together to reframe a system's centre of gravity around the majority, not the talented few. When we do this, inclusion becomes central rather than sidelined, participants stay in sport where they can belong, and talent pools grow - including at the age when potential can actually be identified.
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Drawing on international evidence - including Norway's approach that maintains 93% youth sport participation while producing elite athletes at extraordinary rates - this paper offers governments and peak bodies a practical roadmap for structural reform that moves beyond incremental change.
Participant-Led Systems is a structural framework. Its application is context-specific.
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