From the European Youth Olympics Festival to professional sport. The level of athlete dropout - a longitudinal cohort study

Krisztina Kovács; Dorottya Pignitzky; Csaba Bartha; Johanna Takács

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1572597

From the European Youth Olympics Festival to professional sport. The level of athlete dropout - a longitudinal cohort study

Front Psychol. 2025 May 2:16:1572597. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1572597. eCollection 2025.

Authors

Krisztina Kovács¹, Dorottya Pignitzky², Csaba Bartha³, Johanna Takács⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychology and Sport Psychology, Institute of Economic and Social Sciences, Hungarian University of Sports Science, Budapest, Hungary.
² Hungarian Olympic Committee, Budapest, Hungary.
³ Institute of Sport, Hungarian University of Sports Science, Budapest, Hungary.
⁴ Department of Social Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary.

Abstract

Background: Globally, the dropout rate among young athletes, which is influenced by a range of complex and interconnected factors, tends to rise significantly when adolescence starts.

Objective: The present retrospective cohort study aimed to explore the characteristics and extent of dropout in youth sports in Hungary.

Methods: We analysed the status of 409 athletes who participated in the summer editions of the European Youth Olympic Festival (EYOF) between 2009 and 2019, assessing their athletic status 5 years later. Specifically, we examined the associations between dropout rates and factors such as gender, types of sport and relative age quartiles.

Results: Our findings reveal that dropout rates were higher in individual sports compared to team sports. Additionally, within individual sports, athletes born in the second age quartile had a slightly higher dropout rate, while those born in the third quartile experienced a slightly lower rate compared to the other quartiles.

Conclusion: These insights contribute to a deeper understanding of the factors influencing dropout in youth sports.

Keywords: EYOF; RAE; dropout; junior-to-senior transition; youth sport.