Motherhood within elite sport discourse: The case of Keli Lane
Motherhood and participation in elite sport have traditionally been viewed as at odds with each other. However, mothers competing at the pinnacle of sport are becoming more common. Despite such trends, motherhood often remains invisible and taboo within the sphere of elite sport and little research has addressed athletes who are mothers. In order to explore popular accounts of motherhood and elite sport, we examined 326 media reports of the case of Keli Lane, an Australian water polo player who was convicted of murdering her infant in order to pursue her sporting goals. We draw on a social constructionist and critical approach to discursive analysis in order to explore repeated patterns of constructions of athlete identity and motherhood. We argue that within these media accounts, the identities of ‘elite athlete’ and ‘mother’ were depicted as mutually exclusive. Moreover, the role of the broader context of elite sporting culture and organisations in influencing the combination of motherhood and elite sport participation was rendered invisible within these accounts. The implications for female athletes, especially mothers, are discussed.
Elite athletes and retirement: Identity, choice, and agency
Retirement from elite sport can be highly distressing for athletes, and many report experiencing depression and anxiety in adjusting to this transition. In this article, a discursive psychological approach is employed to explore constructions of choice and identity around elite athletes’ retirements within Australian newsprint media. Within these accounts, three ‘types’ of retirements were identified: retirements occurring in relation to age, injury, or active choice. Retiring with individual agency and at an appropriate time was repeatedly privileged, whereas retiring in different ways was routinely problematised. In privileging particular ways of retiring, certain identity positions were made more accessible than others. Consequently, certain actions and choices are deemed appropriate (or not) for athletes, ultimately constraining decision-making around retirement. The implications of such limited identity positions and choices are explored in relation to the psychological distress and clinical concerns that emerge among many athletes in the transition out of elite sport.
The normalisation of body regulation and monitoring practices in elite sport: a discursive analysis of news delivery sequences during skinfold testing
Prevalence of disordered eating is higher in athlete populations than in the general population. This paper explores the sociocultural context within which athletes are vulnerable to poor health behaviours and potentially poor mental health. Within sport settings, dominant ideals of body regulation and self-surveillance are normalised and leave athletes vulnerable to eating disorders. This paper explores how such ideals and understandings around the body are reproduced within the sporting environment during everyday interactions and how body regulatory practices come to be normalised. This paper draws on discursive psychology, informed by conversation analysis, to examine the news delivery sequences of 40 interactions occurring between elite athletes and sport staff during routine practices of body composition testing taking place in an Australian sport institute network. Through the news delivery sequences of body composition testing scores, practices of body regulation come to be normalised by both athletes and sport staff. Moreover, athletes are positioned as needing continually to improve, thus, (re)producing dominant notions of body regulation as requiring athletes’ self-discipline and surveillance. Discursive practices occurring in sport settings can leave athletes at increased risk of developing unhealthy eating and exercising behaviours and disordered eating. Implications for practice for sport staff are discussed.
Career transitions and identity: a discursive psychological approach to exploring athlete identity in retirement and the transition back into elite sport
Athletes’ career transitions have received widespread research attention and have been identified as potentially distressing for athletes. Yet, the transition back into elite sport following retirement, although rare, has not been a focus of research attention. The concept of athlete identity has been widely researched within sport psychology to give insight into the varied experiences of athletes, especially in relation to the transition out of elite sport. Accordingly, identity may provide additional insight into the transition back into competing at an elite level. Through adopting a discursive psychological approach to the examination of 84 newsprint media representations involving athletes and career transitions, the present study aims to explore dominant social understandings around athlete identity and the choices athletes make to compete (or not) in sport. In doing so, the aim is to add to existing literature around athlete identity and gain insight into the social contexts in which athletes choose to transition back into elite sport, as well as to extend the existing discursive psychological literature of sport and exercise into areas of athlete identity, career transition and the media. Returning to compete in elite sport was routinely depicted in media accounts as something that is not chosen, but as driven by emotion, compulsion and a need to play. Such representations of athletes construct their identity as necessarily motivated by emotion and compulsion.
Reconceptualising the Female Athlete Triad: Locating athletes’ bodies within the discursive practices of elite sporting environments
The Female Athlete Triad is understood to be a sporting-specific health concern, seen almost exclusively amongst female athletes, and is regarded within the sport literature as consisting of a combination of three conditions: disordered eating, amenorrhea, and osteoporosis or osteopenia. Within the sport psychology literature, the Female Athlete Triad has typically been considered as a pathology residing within the individual. However, such pathology cannot be isolated from the sporting context in which body surveillance and regulation are ubiquitous. Indeed, the discursive practices surrounding such surveillance normalise and even privilege behaviours that might otherwise be considered pathological, ultimately producing an appropriate female athlete as one who engages in potentially harmful and pathological behaviours. This paper critiques existing literature on the Female Athlete Triad and disordered eating within the context of elite sport and draws on previous studies of interactions from routine body composition testing in order to contribute to, and challenge, existing understandings of the Female Athlete Triad.
Constructions of athlete mental health post-retirement: a discursive analysis of stigmatising and legitimising versions of transition distress in the Australian broadcast media
Athletes are vulnerable to experiencing mental health disorders, yet, disclosure and help-seeking around mental health remains low, with stigma the most widely reported barrier. However, the ways in which stigma around mental health may be produced (or resisted) in dominant constructions of athlete mental health remain under examined. This study explores constructions of athlete mental health into retirement in an example of Australian broadcast media, with consideration of the ways in which these representations might function to reproduce and perpetuate (or not) stigmatising versions of athlete mental health. Data from a two-part special of a current affairs programme focusing on transition difficulties and poor mental health of nine retired athletes were analysed using Discursive Psychology. Analysis focused on identifying the constructions of mental health and recovery produced in this broadcast, with consideration as to how these depictions might function to perpetuate and/or resist stigma. Mental health was constructed in two key ways - biomedical and life-stress - which externalised mental health. Recovery was, conversely, located as solely the individual's responsibility and was depicted as achieved through self-awareness and engaging in new pursuits. Thus, individual experiences of mental health disorders were partially legitimised through externalising blame and presenting a plurality of depictions, yet did not redress stigma around transition distress more broadly by overlooking contextual factors. Depictions trivialised recovery, potentially functioning to stigmatise long-term or chronic mental health experiences as well as help-seeking. These results inform ways in which stigma around athlete mental health may be challenged, and implications for practice are discussed.
A champion out of the pool? A discursive exploration of two Australian Olympic swimmers' transition from elite sport to retirement
Background: The transition out of elite sport can be distressing and many athletes experience a range of transition difficulties. However, the socio-cultural and discursive contexts which shape experiences remain largely unexplored in the transition literature. Objective: To explore retirement and transition difficulties in a cultural context through an analysis of Australian newsprint media. Design and methods: A discursive analysis of 121 media articles reporting on post-retirement experiences of two Australian swimmers 7 and 5 years (respectively) into retirement. Data were analysed for repeated representation of transition difficulties, specifically how the cause of difficulties was attributed. The identities that were ascribed to athletes and what these functioned to accomplish were also examined. Results: The identities of both individuals were repeatedly constructed in terms of an athlete identity, to the exclusion of other identities. The responsibility for transition difficulties was depicted as located solely within the individual and, thereby, the sport setting and the broader socio-cultural context were overlooked. Conclusions: In this cultural context (Australian news media), the repeated construction of limited identity positions for retired athletes and the construction of former athletes as the sole locus of transition difficulties have implications for their psychological well-being. Despite this, the role of the sporting and cultural context is rendered invisible in these accounts and more broadly, and interventions remain targeted at the individual level.
Accountability, monitoring and surveillance: Body regulation in elite sport
Regulation of athletes’ bodies is commonplace in sporting environments, despite evidence that athletes have a higher risk of developing disordered eating than non-athletes. This article explores how athletes’ bodies are regulated in practice, building on examinations of body surveillance in other contexts. Over 40 interactions occurring during body monitoring are analysed. Athletes, pre-emptively or following an explicit request, accounted for their body regulatory behaviours, also working to produce positive athlete identities. Failing to produce an account of improvement was interactionally problematic, making visible athletes’ accountability to the institute to regulate their bodies. Implications of body regulatory practices are discussed.