Brazilian medals’ plan

strategic or emergency plan?

Resumo

Brazil hosted the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2016. After London 2012, the Ministry of Sport (Ministério do Esporte, ME) launched the Brazilian Medals’ Plan, which was only approved in 2013. It is a plan that seeks complementary support for teams and athletes that intend to compete in 2016. The objective of this article is to critically analyse the Brazilian Medals’ Plan through the lens of strategy. The guiding query of the project is how the Brazilian Medals’ Plan can be classified: as a strategic or an emergency plan. The method used is a narrative review via a critical analysis from the contextual point of view. A relationship was seen between the structuring of elite sports policy, continuity of the policy, and sporting success. In the document from the Ministry of Sport, it was not possible to identify what strategies are necessary to enter the Olympic “top ten” with the Brazilian Olympic Committee’s (Comitê Olímpico Brasileiro, COB) projection of obtaining 30 medals and the Paralympic target to reach the “top five” nations in the Games. It was concluded that the Brazilian Medals’ Plan 2016 is of an emergency nature, leaving the country without a long-term plan for elite sports.