New publication: Does relatedness drive the diversification of countries’ success in sports?

Sport Space

A new publication with Louis Knuepling  is now published in European Sport Management Quarterly. It can be accessed here.  In the study, Louis and I show that relatedness matters for sport success by studying the evolution of national medal portfolios at the Olympics Summer Games. We quantify the relatedness of sports emerging from physical, financial, cultural, and organisational similarities. On this basis, we construct the sports space (see picture above) that shows the relatedness of different kinds of sports. We confirm related diversification helping to explain countries’ success in sports in which they have been previously unsuccessful. It is the first publication of Louis (huge congratulations) and the outcome of his master thesis.