Chris Zehntner
Biographic Data
| ID | 4151549 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Chris Zehntner |
| GIVEN NAMES | Chris |
| FAMILY NAME | Zehntner |
| SIGNATURE | ZEHNTNER C |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Tasmania |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-6739-3246 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 14 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 26 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 14 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2012 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
The post-podium athlete body
This arts-based autoethnography centres on the lived experiences of a mother athlete returning to high-performance sport more than a decade after a career as an international medal-winning swimmer. Applying McCall’s intracategorical intersectional framework, it explores the intersections of age, motherhood, and embodied trauma, as experienced in an elite context where past harms occurred. Using poetic and visual methods (i.e. drawings), this stud…
Expressing embodied trauma through feminist autoethnography and arts-based ways of knowing
As a female survivor of abuse in sport, the first author spent more than a decade engaging in harmful embodied practices including alcohol and prescription medication misuse, disordered eating, and self-harm as she attempted to reclaim control over her body. These practices were shaped by historical disciplinary practices imposed on her adolescent body by male sport staff. This paper uses arts-based feminist autoethnography as a methodology to ex…
Telling the future
Implementing an organizational trauma-informed approach
Athletes have been central to safe sport agendas and contemporary abuse prevention initiatives. Despite these initiatives, abuse continues to occur across sports and levels, with athletes not the only sport members to be experiencing abuse and its effects. As witnessing or experiencing abuse and/or neglect has been shown to influence the life course causing long-term health impacts such as trauma, a serious abuse legacy may result for many sport …
Athlete and coach-led education that teaches about abuse
Research shows that athletes across levels and sports have been subjected to maltreatment with non-sexualised forms such as psychological abuse and neglect found to be the most common. With the normalisation of many of these forms of abuse occurring in sports, researchers have called for the ‘safeguarding’ of athletes to focus on prevention through evidence-based education. Yet evidence-based education that teaches about abuse remains limited in …
Trauma-informed abuse education in sport
The need to focus on abuse prevention in sport has been prioritized due to widespread athlete maltreatment occurring across many sports, levels and regions. One recommendation to prevent athlete maltreatment is through evidence-based education. Despite this recommendation, surprisingly little has been done in this area. A recently proposed idea is that athlete abuse survivors could collaborate with sport organizations in maltreatment prevention i…
Gender order through social censure
In this paper, findings from an investigation into the gender imbalance in swim coaching in Australia, particularly at the higher levels of accreditation, are reported. Stories of the experience of two elite female swim coaches were analysed with reference to the concept of hegemonic masculinity. Analysis found that some male coaches and attendants to the swimming culture use literal and ideological force, including differentiation, direct contro…
The fast-tracking of one elite athlete swimmer into a swimming coaching role
Recently, coach accreditation structures have involved the ‘fast-tracking’ of former elite athletes into coaching roles. This means that former athletes are having their coach education shortened for their time already served in the sport. Some of the reasons for fast-tracking include the perception that former athletes will quickly gain player respect, and, that they will recycle specific culturally entrenched coaching ideologies. The recycling …
Fleshy, female and forty
This film is presented as a docudrama, where video diaries and other elements of film production capture the six-month journey of a former elite swimmer who re-immersed herself into an elite swimming culture as a 40-year-old woman. Over a six-month period, the former swimmer subjected herself to the same training schedule and coaching practices that current Australian elite swimmers undertake, capturing video diaries of her experiences during thi…
Control, consent and complicity in the coaching of elite women’s cycling in Australia
The purpose of this study was to extend understanding of how athletes and coaches in a women’s cycling talent development and selection programme negotiate and normalise athlete abuse in the media. A thematic analysis of six online cycling magazine articles and their representations of the Australian women’s elite cycling development camp was analysed to explore athletic abuse and the (re)production of coaching practices using Bourdieusian theory…
I am fast but I do not fit
Given that research outside of sport and exercise has found that stigma may cause severe consequences (e.g. depression), it is important to explore the concept in regard to its connection to socio-cultural issues in the development and persistence of stigmatisation in sporting contexts. Analytic autoethnography and Goffman’s theory of stigma was used to explore one female swimmer’s experiences of ‘enacted’ and ‘felt’ competitive performance stigm…
Slim to Win
Ethnodrama combined with Goffman’s ‘presentation of self’ is used to explore three elite swimmers’ ‘presentation of self’ in relation to the dominant ideology of ‘slim to win’. The ‘presentation of self’ of three swimmers is presented and analyzed according to their front stage (e.g., posting of specific images; direct media quotes) and backstage (e.g., an autoethnographic representation) performances. Goffman’s concepts of expressions ‘given’ an…
Mentoring in coaching
This paper reports on research that identifies the disciplinary mechanism of surveillance and power at work within pathways for coach education in the Australian swimming culture. Utilising autoethnography and Foucault, one Australian swimming coach’s experiences are explored, particularly his experiences within the mentor–mentee relationship of the Australian swimming coaching culture. It is contended that mentor coaches act as intermediaries of…
The sociology of sports coaching
Athlete and coach-led education that teaches about abuse
Research shows that athletes across levels and sports have been subjected to maltreatment with non-sexualised forms such as psychological abuse and neglect found to be the most common. With the normalisation of many of these forms of abuse occurring in sports, researchers have called for the ‘safeguarding’ of athletes to focus on prevention through evidence-based education. Yet evidence-based education that teaches about abuse remains limited in …
Trauma-informed abuse education in sport
The need to focus on abuse prevention in sport has been prioritized due to widespread athlete maltreatment occurring across many sports, levels and regions. One recommendation to prevent athlete maltreatment is through evidence-based education. Despite this recommendation, surprisingly little has been done in this area. A recently proposed idea is that athlete abuse survivors could collaborate with sport organizations in maltreatment prevention i…
I am fast but I do not fit
Given that research outside of sport and exercise has found that stigma may cause severe consequences (e.g. depression), it is important to explore the concept in regard to its connection to socio-cultural issues in the development and persistence of stigmatisation in sporting contexts. Analytic autoethnography and Goffman’s theory of stigma was used to explore one female swimmer’s experiences of ‘enacted’ and ‘felt’ competitive performance stigm…
The fast-tracking of one elite athlete swimmer into a swimming coaching role
Recently, coach accreditation structures have involved the ‘fast-tracking’ of former elite athletes into coaching roles. This means that former athletes are having their coach education shortened for their time already served in the sport. Some of the reasons for fast-tracking include the perception that former athletes will quickly gain player respect, and, that they will recycle specific culturally entrenched coaching ideologies. The recycling …
Slim to Win
Ethnodrama combined with Goffman’s ‘presentation of self’ is used to explore three elite swimmers’ ‘presentation of self’ in relation to the dominant ideology of ‘slim to win’. The ‘presentation of self’ of three swimmers is presented and analyzed according to their front stage (e.g., posting of specific images; direct media quotes) and backstage (e.g., an autoethnographic representation) performances. Goffman’s concepts of expressions ‘given’ an…
Gender order through social censure
In this paper, findings from an investigation into the gender imbalance in swim coaching in Australia, particularly at the higher levels of accreditation, are reported. Stories of the experience of two elite female swim coaches were analysed with reference to the concept of hegemonic masculinity. Analysis found that some male coaches and attendants to the swimming culture use literal and ideological force, including differentiation, direct contro…
Control, consent and complicity in the coaching of elite women’s cycling in Australia
The purpose of this study was to extend understanding of how athletes and coaches in a women’s cycling talent development and selection programme negotiate and normalise athlete abuse in the media. A thematic analysis of six online cycling magazine articles and their representations of the Australian women’s elite cycling development camp was analysed to explore athletic abuse and the (re)production of coaching practices using Bourdieusian theory…
The sociology of sports coaching
Mentoring in coaching
This paper reports on research that identifies the disciplinary mechanism of surveillance and power at work within pathways for coach education in the Australian swimming culture. Utilising autoethnography and Foucault, one Australian swimming coach’s experiences are explored, particularly his experiences within the mentor–mentee relationship of the Australian swimming coaching culture. It is contended that mentor coaches act as intermediaries of…
Slim to Win
Ethnodrama combined with Goffman’s ‘presentation of self’ is used to explore three elite swimmers’ ‘presentation of self’ in relation to the dominant ideology of ‘slim to win’. The ‘presentation of self’ of three swimmers is presented and analyzed according to their front stage (e.g., posting of specific images; direct media quotes) and backstage (e.g., an autoethnographic representation) performances. Goffman’s concepts of expressions ‘given’ an…
Fleshy, female and forty
This film is presented as a docudrama, where video diaries and other elements of film production capture the six-month journey of a former elite swimmer who re-immersed herself into an elite swimming culture as a 40-year-old woman. Over a six-month period, the former swimmer subjected herself to the same training schedule and coaching practices that current Australian elite swimmers undertake, capturing video diaries of her experiences during thi…
Control, consent and complicity in the coaching of elite women’s cycling in Australia
The purpose of this study was to extend understanding of how athletes and coaches in a women’s cycling talent development and selection programme negotiate and normalise athlete abuse in the media. A thematic analysis of six online cycling magazine articles and their representations of the Australian women’s elite cycling development camp was analysed to explore athletic abuse and the (re)production of coaching practices using Bourdieusian theory…
I am fast but I do not fit
Given that research outside of sport and exercise has found that stigma may cause severe consequences (e.g. depression), it is important to explore the concept in regard to its connection to socio-cultural issues in the development and persistence of stigmatisation in sporting contexts. Analytic autoethnography and Goffman’s theory of stigma was used to explore one female swimmer’s experiences of ‘enacted’ and ‘felt’ competitive performance stigm…
The fast-tracking of one elite athlete swimmer into a swimming coaching role
Recently, coach accreditation structures have involved the ‘fast-tracking’ of former elite athletes into coaching roles. This means that former athletes are having their coach education shortened for their time already served in the sport. Some of the reasons for fast-tracking include the perception that former athletes will quickly gain player respect, and, that they will recycle specific culturally entrenched coaching ideologies. The recycling …
Gender order through social censure
In this paper, findings from an investigation into the gender imbalance in swim coaching in Australia, particularly at the higher levels of accreditation, are reported. Stories of the experience of two elite female swim coaches were analysed with reference to the concept of hegemonic masculinity. Analysis found that some male coaches and attendants to the swimming culture use literal and ideological force, including differentiation, direct contro…
Athlete and coach-led education that teaches about abuse
Research shows that athletes across levels and sports have been subjected to maltreatment with non-sexualised forms such as psychological abuse and neglect found to be the most common. With the normalisation of many of these forms of abuse occurring in sports, researchers have called for the ‘safeguarding’ of athletes to focus on prevention through evidence-based education. Yet evidence-based education that teaches about abuse remains limited in …
Trauma-informed abuse education in sport
The need to focus on abuse prevention in sport has been prioritized due to widespread athlete maltreatment occurring across many sports, levels and regions. One recommendation to prevent athlete maltreatment is through evidence-based education. Despite this recommendation, surprisingly little has been done in this area. A recently proposed idea is that athlete abuse survivors could collaborate with sport organizations in maltreatment prevention i…
Telling the future
Implementing an organizational trauma-informed approach
Athletes have been central to safe sport agendas and contemporary abuse prevention initiatives. Despite these initiatives, abuse continues to occur across sports and levels, with athletes not the only sport members to be experiencing abuse and its effects. As witnessing or experiencing abuse and/or neglect has been shown to influence the life course causing long-term health impacts such as trauma, a serious abuse legacy may result for many sport …
The post-podium athlete body
This arts-based autoethnography centres on the lived experiences of a mother athlete returning to high-performance sport more than a decade after a career as an international medal-winning swimmer. Applying McCall’s intracategorical intersectional framework, it explores the intersections of age, motherhood, and embodied trauma, as experienced in an elite context where past harms occurred. Using poetic and visual methods (i.e. drawings), this stud…
Expressing embodied trauma through feminist autoethnography and arts-based ways of knowing
As a female survivor of abuse in sport, the first author spent more than a decade engaging in harmful embodied practices including alcohol and prescription medication misuse, disordered eating, and self-harm as she attempted to reclaim control over her body. These practices were shaped by historical disciplinary practices imposed on her adolescent body by male sport staff. This paper uses arts-based feminist autoethnography as a methodology to ex…
Psychology (12 works) · Sport Psychology and Performance (12 works) · Sports, Gender, and Society (10 works) · Sociology (8 works) · Elite (7 works) · Coaching (6 works) · Political science (6 works) · Social Psychology (6 works) · Social Psychology (6 works) · Athletes (5 works)