Athletic Identity
An Achilles' Heel to the Survival of Self
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4612201 |
|---|---|
| Authors | A C Sparkes (0000-0002-7622-6570, School of Postgraduate Medicine and Health Sciences at the University of Exeter, Devon, U.K, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1998 |
| Volume | 8 |
| Issue | 5 |
| Pages | 644-664 |
| Publication date | 1998-09-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Qualitative Health Research (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1049-7323 • E-ISSN: 1552-7557 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/104973239800800506 |
| OpenAlex | W2102834930 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 76 |
| References cited | 33 |
To illuminate the complex ways in which a strong athletic identity can act as an Achilles' heel in coming to terms with a disruptive life event, this article presents biographical data of one elite athlete whose career was prematurely terminated by illness. The analysis reveals how, as an individual descends from the heights of the extraordinary into the mundane world of ordinariness, the loss of certain selves enforces a heightened reflexivity and awareness of previously taken-for-granted aspects of the body-self relationship that are no longer attainable. The manner in which certain selves at the apex of an identity hierarchy exert pressure on the individual to seek a restored self rather than opt for more attainable or realistic identities is highlighted. The problems of restorying the self when an individual is constrained by limited narrative resources are also considered. Finally, some implications of the findings for health care professionals are discussed
Aesthetics · Elite · Hierarchy · Narrative · Political science · Reflexivity · Social science · Sociology · Empathy and Medical Education · Law · Psychology · Social Psychology · Sport Psychology and Performance · Sports, Gender, and Society
Physically Embodying the Oppressive Trinity
‘You don’t know what’s around the corner’
Critical Moments in Elite Premiership Football
Burning the Book
Injured Distance Runners
Running into Injury Time
Keeping it in the family
Athletes' career transition out of sport
Abandoning The Performance Narrative
Coaching and ethical self-creation
Restored Life of Elite Athletes after Spinal Cord Injury
Sprinters in the Course of a Marathon
Mental Health, Crime, Sport, Community, and Island Life
A qualitative exploration of narratives among problematic exercise experiences
Ultra-running
“Messy Texts”, or the Unexplainable Performance
My sport, my perspectives
It’s Your Whole Life
The Emotional Implications of a Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Diagnosis in a Retired Athlete
Exploring the Contribution of Personal Qualities to the Personal and Professional Development of Trainee Sport Psychology Practitioners’ Within the Individuation Process
Narrative, Identity, and Recovery from Serious Mental Illness
Working the When , Where , and Who of Social Context
When narratives matter
A lifetime in high-performance motor sport
Athletic identity – or an autoethnography of almost losing a leg
Acquired disability in young women
Sporting bodies, ageing, narrative mapping and young team athletes
Crafting a one-dimensional identity
Exploring Body Narratives
Planning, practice and performance
Mid-life nuances and negotiations
Collegiate athletes and career identity
The meaning of physical education and sport among elite athletes with visual impairments
Deconstructing embedded meaning within cyclists’ Instagram discourse
A Study of the Relationship Between Elite Athletes' Educational Development and Sporting Performance
Young athletic bodies and narrative maps of aging
The engine just started coughing!’ — Limits of physical performance, aging and career continuity in elite endurance sports
Stories as actors causing trouble in lives
Children’s agency in organised sport
I get used to it, I train through it, even though there are some days you cry through it
Sad stories for a better future
Sport, Spinal Cord Injury, Embodied Masculinities, and the Dilemmas of Narrative Identity
Emotions, Interaction and the Injured Sporting Body
Working Out' Identity
Football Still Puts Food on My Table
The narrative construction of a de-stigmatised identity
University sport retirement and athlete mental health
How far is too far? Understanding identity and overconformity in collegiate wrestlers
A narrative exploration of the evolving perception of exercise among people with multiple sclerosis
It’s not all about me’
An [Auto]ethnographic account of constructing, deconstructing, and partially reconstructing a coaching identity
Navigating the athlete role
Archers’ experiences of target panic
From identification to dis-identification
Embodied knowing at the borderlands
Renegotiating Identity
Running Fever’
Jogging not running
Traveling Material↔Semiotic Environments of Disability, Rehabilitation, and Physical Activity
Predictive Genetic Testing in Diabetes
Experiences and Expectations of Biographical Time among Young Athletes
Everything I enjoy doing I just couldn't do
Social comparison processes, narrative mapping and their shaping of the cancer experience
Fractured identities
Sports Chaplaincy, Theology and Social Theory Disrupting Performance-Based Identity in Elite Sporting Contexts
Men, Sport, Spinal Cord Injury and Narrative Time
Men, sport, spinal cord injury and the construction of coherence
The Abyss
The Beast Within
No one wants to be the washed-up ex-cricketer sitting at the bar getting pissed talking of the good old days
An ambition at a crossroads
Monadic, material and mirroring
Organisations, practices, actors, and events
They Light The Christmas Tree in Our Town
Running the Routes Together
Bodies, Narratives, Selves, and Autobiography
Backboards & Blackboards
Interpretive Biography
Reflections on qualitative data analysis
For a Sociology of the Body
The art of case study research
The Wounded Storyteller
Prenatal Care Use Among Women of Low Income
Self‐Identity and Specific Vulnerability to Depressed Mood
Narrative in Medicine
Lars-Christer Hyden
Interrupted Body Projects and the Self in Teaching
Life histories and the issue of voice
Body Talk
The Gloried Self
Self, Silence and Invisibility as a Beginning Teacher
The Relevance of Leisure in an Illness Experience
Interpretive Interactionism
Qualitative Analysis for Social Scientists
Interpretive Interactionism
Postcards, Ghosts, and Fathers
The Fatal Flaw
Sport, Physical Danger, and Injury
The Body, Identity, and Self
Dramatic Self Change
The Self as a Soliloquy
Identity Dilemmas of Chronically Ill Men
Chronic illness as biographical disruption
The genesis of chronic illness
Loss of self
| Unique citing works | 76 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2,81 |
| Citation span | 1999 - 2026 (28) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 69 |