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Abstract

Many factors are associated with a person's attitude formation and intention toward a behavior. In this study, we examined the planned organizational service environment factors that helped form young athletes' attitudes regarding their future involvement in high-performance sport. Through a survey design that included quantitative and qualitative questions, data was collected from 207 young pre-elite athletes who competed during the 2017 Commonwealth Youth Games in The Bahamas. Several service environment factors contributed to young athletes' satisfaction with the event including their accommodations, nutrition, available information regarding their sport, and finally, the social and cultural activities experienced during games-time. However, satisfaction with the service environment was not predictive of young athletes' future intentions to remain in sport. Qualitative thematic coding denoted two key themes related to athlete's plans to continue in high-performance sport: level of enjoyment and learning. Further, results revealed five main impediments to continuing in high-performance sport: physiological, psychological, performance, environmental, and life concerns. This paper contributes to our understanding of the service environment factors that influence young athletes in a multi-sport international event and provides evidence of important aspects involved in athletes' attitude formation and intentions to remain in the high-performance sport system.