Studies of competitive balance in sport have considered primarily professional leagues and team sports. This paper investigates trends in competitive balance in a multi-sport event context – the Commonwealth Games – using three distinct indicators. The investigation demonstrated that the Games have become significantly less competitive overall between 1930 and 2010 (p < 0.01) according to two indicators – the percentage of nations to win a medal point and the coefficient of variation in nations' market share (medal points won divided by medals points available). Conversely, one indicator – Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (the sum of the squares of nations' market shares in a given edition) – revealed that there has been a strong, albeit insignificant, improvement in the overall standard of the competition over the last twenty years (p > 0.10). Events contested by 'men only' were found to be the most balanced relative to both 'women only' and 'mixed / open' events across all indicators. Boxing and athletics emerged as the most balanced sports compared with diving, cycling, swimming and, to a lesser extent, weightlifting. The findings are of value to competition authorities to determine whether to implement corrective measures in order to maintain or improve competitive balance.

Los estudios sobre equilibrio competitivo en deporte han considerado principalmente ligas profesionales y deportes de equipo. Esta investigación analiza las tendencias en el equilibrio competitivo en un contexto de un evento multideportivo: Los Juegos de la Commonwealth, empleando para ello tres indicadores diferentes. Así, los resultados muestran que el nivel competitivo de los Juegos ha decrecido globalmente entre 1930 y 2010 (p<0.01) de acuerdo a dos indicadores: el porcentaje de naciones que han ganado una medalla y el coeficiente de variación en la cuota de mercado de los países (medallas ganadas entre las medallas disponibles). Por otra parte, el indicador de Herfindhal-Hirschman, que refleja la suma de los cuadrados de las cuotas de mercado de los países en una edición determinada, sugiere que ha habido una mejora, aunque insignificante, en el nivel competitivo global en los últimos 20 años (p>0.10). Los eventos en los que competían hombres únicamente han estado más equilibrados con respecto a los de mujeres o los mixtos, y este resultado se refleja en los tres indicadores. El boxeo y el atletismo han sido los deportes más equilibrados, comparados con los saltos de trampolín, el ciclismo, la natación y, en menor medida, la halterofilia. Estos resultados proporcionan una valiosa fuente de información para la gestión de los Juegos, en aras de implementar medidas correctivas para mantener o mejorar el equilibrio de la competición. Palabras clave: equilibrio competitivo; alto rendimiento; eventos multideportivos, incertidumbre en el resultado.

http://dx.doi.org/10.5232/ricyde2014.03506

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