Critical factors influencing international sporting success of the Philippines: the athletes’ perspective

To contribute to the understanding of the recent declining performance of the Philippines in international sporting competitions, an evaluation of the organizational effectiveness of the national sport governing bodies by its respective national elite athletes may provide an explanation for the country’s poor performance in major international competitions such as the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games. A framework used in measuring organizational effectiveness is the Sport Policy Factors Leading to International Sporting Success model. The model specifies Critical Success Factors (CSFs), operationalized into measurable concepts, to evaluate success in international competitions. The aim of this article is to evaluate relevant CSFs that influence international sporting performance of the Philippines based on selected elite athletes. Further, the study explores the relationship between CSFs and international success output based on the 2015 SEA Games medal results, where if the participating National Sport Associations’ overall rating of sport policy factor is high, the international performance also is relatively high. Otherwise, when the perceived quality of these key factors is low, the output may not be as successful as expected.