Developing narrative identities in youth pre-elite sport: bridging the present and the future

ABSTRACT

Narrative research has contributed to understandings of athletic identity as an evolving story of the self that is creatively put together by the agentic individual but necessarily dependent on broader narratives within which we all live our lives. However, most studies in sport have focused on retrospective ‘big stories’ of athletes’ lives, rather than on-going, future-oriented identity construction through storytelling. In this study, we explored Finnish pre-elite athletes’ emerging stories of the self to understand the processes associated with the narrative selection and the resources they tap into in making sport meaningful to them. Nine women and eight men aged 17–18 were invited to create a visual representation of themselves as athletes and discuss them in conversational interviews. In the narrative analysis, we identified three storylines, ‘the high-performance athlete’, ‘the performance, relational and fun athlete’ and ‘the lifestyle athlete’ and explored how stories were selected to construct a positive athletic identity and sustain motivation. We argue that the end point of the identity narratives was to establish a positive future perspective and hope in the face of adversities. The future-oriented narrative content signals a need for more diverse narrative methodologies in sport beyond retrospective approaches such as the life story interview, especially with younger participants.

KEYWORDS:

• Athletic identity
• futuring
• small stories
• narrative selection
• youth sport

Acknowledgments

This study was funded by a grant from the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture (grant numbers OKM/38/626/2015 and OKM/39/626/2017) to TR.

We would like to thank the athletes who participated in the study, Dr Harri Selänne for conducting the interviews and acting as a critical friend, and Dr Olli Tikkanen for offering valuable comments on the data analysis.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Opetus- ja Kulttuuriministeriö [OKM/38/626/2015,OKM/39/626/2017].

Notes on contributors

Noora J. Ronkainen

Dr Noora J. Ronkainen is a senior researcher at University of Jyväskylä. Her research is focused on existential learning in sport, athletes' identities and spirituality.

Tatiana V. Ryba

Dr Tatiana V. Ryba is a senior researcher at the University of Jyväskylä. Her current research is focused on youth athletes' dual career construction, transitions and life design.