NxtStride Finland Oy announces the publication of Practitioner Sports: A Missing Category of Sport, a framework for federation executives in the extended IOC family.

The book names a third category of sport alongside spectator and participant sports — disciplines whose value comes not from broadcast attention or mass participation, but from results, rankings, qualification paths, and credentials that competing athletes trust. Most international federations fit this category. Most have not named it.

Who this is for

The book is written for leaders of international federations in the IOC-recognition pathway, AIMS and ARISF members, and national federations recognised by their NOCs. The language is plain; every term is defined; no chapter requires a background in research methods.

What it covers

The framework proposes a test for classifying any discipline as spectator, participant, or practitioner — including disciplines within the same federation that may fall into different categories.

It examines the athlete pipeline: the known dropout points where federations lose potential coaches, judges, officials and board members. It sets out why copying broadcast or mass-participation models tends to fail for practitioner sports, and what federation growth models actually work in this space.

It addresses a newer problem: how AI search and answer systems change which federations are visible to athletes, and what publication strategy a practitioner federation should adopt in response.

The final section is a first-12-month plan that requires no new technology, no new revenue, and no external technology vendor.

Built to be tested

The framework states in advance what would prove it wrong. It proposes three pre-registered experiments and a matched comparison of AIMS federations that did and did not progress to IOC recognition, with a fixed failure threshold. This approach is disclosed in full at the outset.

The author discloses that NxtStride Finland Oy builds recognition infrastructure for practitioner sports federations, and explains how the experiments are designed to limit that conflict of interest.

Publication details

Practitioner Sports: A Missing Category of Sport was published September 22, 2026, as a Kindle edition.

NxtStride Finland Oy builds digital recognition infrastructure for practitioner sports federations. The company's products and the framework in this book are designed for federations in the extended IOC family.