Abstract

Every young athlete dreams of becoming a star number one, winning international competitions, joining well paid teams, and ensuring successful life after finishing sports career. Nevertheless, when athletes reach the age of 15-16, it becomes clear that only a few will become professional ones. After athletes end their sports career, they need to integrate into society – so education and gained profession are of very high importance. Such life model requires from athletes to overcome many difficulties as they need to achieve settled goals: high sport results and university education. Any athlete cannot deal with so many raising problems on his own. So this becomes a matter of concern for universities, sport organizations, and sponsors. The most significant issue for preserving young talented athletes is for them not to stop sports career after they leave gymnasiums, comprehensive schools and enter (or do not enter) universities. This is why it is important to search for decisions of how to decrease discontinued sport careers on young talents that already has become a catastrophe in sport on national level; world level experience has to be analysed for guidance reasons: China case (Shanghai University example); studies programme in England for high performance track and field athletes; sport talents entering USA universities. It can be stated that there are no study programmes for talented athletes in Lithuania. The Ministry of Education and Science no longer has a department, whose concern would be students’ physical education and sport. The system of organizing competitions and other sport events has a lot of imperfections, too. Young talents preservation is insufficiently coordinated among various organizations as well as athletes recordings are noneffective. But, despite mentioned weaknesses, we initiate to offer such solutions for young talents education problems: 1) Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Lithuania, Department of Physical Education and Sports, sport federations, and city municipalities have to arrange the strategy for the renovation and development of all Lithuanian universities sport facilities; 2) Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Lithuania and Department of Physical Education and Sports have in the very essence to solve students’ material provision problems; 3) Ministry of Education and Science has to ensure financing for students’ summer camps (wellness camps and sport performance camps); 4) to organize for 11th and 12th grades students introductory camps about conditions of entering Lithuanian universities and how to keep sports career going (such camps should be organized with present students-athletes participation); 5) to develop information system on talented Lithuanian young athletes (pupils and students); 6) once every two years to organize Lithuanian Universiade for students, and for pupils to organize Games analogous to SELL Games; 7) Lithuanian Sports University should become the centre of Lithuanian Olympic and national teams training; 8) Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Lithuania, Department of Physical Education and Sports, and sport federations must solve problems of university lecturers-trainers proper payments, qualification, and certification; 9) pedagogical activity of any lecturer-trainer has to be more often included into the criteria list of certification processes of gaining associate professor pedagogical name; 10) to encourage the movement of “Harmony of Sport and Science” in all Lithuanian universities. Namely, here sport science has to appear and to evolve biological as well as social, psychological, and scientific researches on problems in sport. We are certain that this is the way for preserving and educating sport talents, who will make name of Lithuania famous on the world’s highest level. Verf.-Referat