High performance sport programs and emplaced performance capital in elite athletes from developing nations

•Emplaced performance capital examines the material and sensory world of elite athletes.•The material and sensory produce affects and capacities impacting athlete’s development.•Deficits of emplaced performance capital affect athlete’s performance at international events.•Sports managers need to be attuned to the affects produced through the material and sensory.For elite athletes from developing countries, providing access to high performance services is often a low priority, when other issues such as basic social, health, and community needs take precedence. Little is known about how these athletes develop the skills necessary to compete at international events. Prior to the Commonwealth Games in Australia, a series of training camps were trialed, designed to expose athletes from a small group of developing countries in the Oceania region to the high-performance training environment. Drawing on data from focus groups conducted with athletes and coaches, the authors explore the struggles that occur as athletes negotiate the affects produced through the material and sensory world of their everyday lives. The authors propose the notion of emplaced performance capital to examine the complex interplay between field, capital and habitus and the place-events of training and performing. Implicit within these negotiations is how power is exercised in conflicts over resources to produce inequalities and marginalization. While the research is conducted in developing countries, the authors argue that athletes from developed countries are also situated in material and sensory environments producing affects that potentially impact performance.