Ill Fates and Heroic Feats: A Thematic Analysis of Elite Athleticism and Chronic Illness

ABSTRACT

Far more than an individual endeavor, work is a collective enterprise, an ethic, in which individuals participate to fulfill needs of their surrounding social world. Specifically, sport professionals undergo strenuous physical labor to compete and garner public admiration. Yet, when chronic illness interferes with their performances, how are athletes expected to respond? Through a thematic analysis of newspaper discourses covering professional golfer Tim Simpson’s mysterious illness over time, this study explores an athlete’s persistence to compete despite his deteriorating health. Using a grounded theory approach, this study investigates the tensions between Simpson’s efforts to maintain a “sport ethic” while instantaneously adhering to responsibilities expected of “healthy citizens”. The analysis reveals Simpson’s body as paradoxically the primary means for his athletic performance and the primary source of his declining health. Public discourses manage this paradox by diffusing disruptions provoked by Simpson’s sudden illness and standardizing deviations observed of his actions to justify his work ethic. Drawing from these observations, the concluding discussion interrogates issues that surface when good health is framed as an achievement of rather than a basis for productive living.