The great challenge for programs and services provided for athlete development is to ensure a consistent progression of appropriately trained, high performance athletes. There are two distinct types of athletic development systems. The first is represented by the socalist models of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe (the eastern models). The second is represented by the capitalist models of the United States of America and other Western countries (the western models). These two systems have their respective strengths
and weaknesses in aspects of both the organizational structure and management of athlete development. Each issue will be examined in the body of this paper.