‘I just hope people can forgive me’: Australian women athletes, apologies and image restoration at the Rio Olympic Games

Abstract

Prior to the 2016 Olympic Games, Australia’s Chef de Mission Kitty Chiller predicted that the Australian team could win as many as 16 Olympic gold medals. Australia’s Olympic team won a total of eight gold medals and the sports media reacted by suggesting the team had ‘failed’. At the 2016 Olympic Games, three high-profile Australian female athletes apologised to the Australian public for their performances. This study examines these three interconnecting cases and how such behaviour is linked to research that examines sports media and gender (including female agency), ‘image restoration’ and third-wave feminism. Additionally, this work identifies how the culture of third-wave feminism is conceptually troubled by the notion of the ‘female apologetic’ and calls for a re-examination and modification of such a notion.

Keywords:

• Olympic Games
• women
• apology
• image restoration
• media
• third-wave feminism

Acknowledgements

The author would like to acknowledge Charles Sturt University for granting Special Studies Leave to the author for a period in 2016 to complete this study.

Notes

1. Chiller did not elaborate as to which athletes or teams may win these gold medals.

2. This study does not represent the experiences of all female athletes competing for Australia.

3. The experiences of these two male swimmers do not provide a generalisation of the experiences of all male athletes at the Games and were chosen as they were both highly favoured (based on past performances) to win their respective events at the Games.

4. Such pressure is particularly pertinent to female athletes who have traditionally not featured as prominently as their male counterparts in media coverage.

5. However, examples of performative apology (where behaviour is embodied) can sometimes be very different to the notion of a verbal apology.

6. The Australian newspaper represents a national perspective and both the Daily Telegraph and Sydney Morning Herald represent a state perspective (New South Wales).

7. ABC represents a national media perspective in Australia, and the remaining media sources represent both state and territory perspectives.

8. In the media analysed during the data collection period, not one article focused on this point.

9. Even though Parker’s apology was first posted on social media on ‘Twitter’, this apology was subsequently reported on by online newspapers analysed in this study.