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In the 2016 International Olympic Committee Consensus Statement on harassment and abuse, it was outlined that psychological abuse in sport research has been heavily focused on the coach--athlete relationship resulting in a lack of research on other members of the athletes' support system such as their 'entourage.' Researchers of abuse have further noted that psychological abuse remains relatively underexplored in comparison to other types of athlete abuses (e.g. sexual abuse). As psychological abuse is one of the most common types of abuse occurring in sporting contexts, it has been flagged as an urgent safeguarding concern. Psychological abuse can be enacted in different ways with many associated behaviours. The present study explored one under-researched issue shown to be entrenched in sport culture -- 'body shaming' -- and how it constitutes psychological abuse. We also focused on the role of the athlete entourage (i.e. people associated with the athlete) in relation to psychological abuse through the body shaming of athletes. Using thematic analysis, three female athletes' stories showed how they were subjected to psychological abuse from members of their entourage when their bodies failed to meet socio-cultural expectations (i.e. too fat, not 'slim to win'). While it was not the central focus of our research, the athletes also explained how they were subjected to physical abuse and physical neglect from entourage members when they were perceived to be overweight or too fat. The athlete entourage members found to be perpetrators of abuse and physical neglect included the coach, the parent, the partner, and the manager. This research provides novel insight into how abuse is circulating through sporting contexts, and in so doing, generates knowledge for prevention and intervention initiatives in sport.

In the present study, post-partum embodied subjectivity of five competitive recreational mother runners of children under 6 years of age, was explored using narrative inquiry from a story analyst and a story teller position. This focus expands understanding of sport, embodiment and good mother ideals using narrative inquiry as a novel theory to centralize body-self stories contextualized in cultural narratives. A central theme of 'reimagining the post-partum self' was identified from a story analyst position whereby stories are the objects of analysis. We shifted to storytellers to present the nuanced intersecting meanings of this central theme in the form of three accessible creative nonfiction stories presented as composite vignettes. The three vignettes were: "listening to, and learning from my post-pregnant body;" "new mum, new athlete;" and "running (re)connects me to myself." These findings expand critical insights into the motherhood, sport and embodiment nexus into the under-studied topic of post-partum recreational sport. Such work opens pedagogical possibilities through telling, and witnessing, stories to highlight constraining and emancipative aspects, of women's physical participation.

In this paper, narrative analysis using a story analyst approach is used to explore how three former athletes (i.e. amateur and elite swimmers) self-managed their abuse experiences post-sport with a focus on the use, and meaning, of 'indirect self-injury' forms. Using the concept of 'emotion work', the swimmers' stories show how they reconfigured the emotions associated with the legacy of abuse by using indirect self-injury (e.g. eating disorder; abuse of prescription medications; excessive alcohol use; promiscuity) as embodied resources, after they were left to fend for themselves post-sport. As acquired resources within their self-stories, indirect forms of self-injury assisted them to reconfigure the trauma of abuse into something that was more manageable (i.e. 'emotion work'). While 'emotion work' was storied as successful for the three swimmers in the short term, the potential long-term health consequences of self-injury (i.e. kidney disease; liver damage; unwanted pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, death) were imminent. These findings highlight the need for sporting stakeholders to extend their duty of care to athletes, particularly abused athletes, post-sport.

Sociological investigations into the athlete-medical practitioner relationship are scarce due to medical bias for positivist epistemologies. The aim of this research was to identify the scope and purpose of medical interventions for four athletes, within the context of social processes that enable medicine to claim athletic bodies as objects of practice and performance. The role and function of power in the athlete-medical doctor transaction and athlete embodiment were also of interest. Using a story-analyst approach grounded in narrative analysis, the ideologies of 'slim to win' and 'performance' were identified as the impetus for the athletes seeking the expertise of doctors. Doctors were positioned as accomplices in 'slim to win' and 'performance' ideologies within the athletes' stories, which influenced medical practices and compromised athlete health. Disciplinary power was enacted when the doctors observed, corrected and manipulated the athletes' bodies through medical practice. Athletes also had agency through renegotiating the meaning of the 'treatment' process by reconfiguring medical doctor's disciplinary power as forms of empowerment knowledge. This research highlights the complex nature of the athlete-medical doctor transaction and how these encounters can be productive and oppressive for athletes.

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 findings revealed a link between the expression of coaching practice and the maltreatment of athletes. Analysis of these articles also revealed that athletes were complicit in the normalisation of coaching practices through the misrecognition of social power embedded in the coaching intervention. The representations by athletes within the articles contributed narratives related to the reproduction and proliferation of abusive coaching practices. This study extends understanding of how taken for granted and power laden aspects of coaching practices can be presented in the media and highlights the implications for coaches, athletes and the general public that consume online cycling media content.

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 stigma occurring in elite swimming and a masters swimming context. Competitive performance stigma has not been conceptualised or explored as a stigma type in sport research, however through the presentation and analysis of two vignettes and the use of Goffman, this is achieved. The social agents that contributed to both 'enacted' and 'felt' competitive performance stigma and the consequences/effects (e.g. withdrawal from sport, feelings of shame) for this swimmer are highlighted. Our analysis further highlights the role of particular cultural insiders (e.g. coaches, team managers and other swimmers) in the reproduction of competitive performance stigma through acts of labelling, discrimination and social isolation. These acts positioned the female swimmer as an 'outsider' because of her competitive performance which in turn led to her withdrawal from these two sporting contexts highlighting the implications for recipients of stigmatisation.

This paper explores three female swimmers' relationships with their male coaches and the body practices they were exposed to within Australian swimming. Particular attention is given to how the relationships and practices might relate to gender. Additionally, the article examines how (if at all) the conduct contributed to the social construction of an accepted female swimmer body. Through narrative accounts, the three adolescent female athletes articulate hierarchical male coach-female athlete relationships and specific body encounters they were exposed to and/or engaged with. Their experiences reveal how a sexually maturing body (growing breasts, female body shape and menstruating) was deemed unsuitable for performance and the swimmers were thus encouraged to transform their bodies and behaviours towards that of the boys. Using a feminist Foucauldian perspective, these accounts points to how the three swimmers came to regulate their diet, training and appearance in order to fulfil expectations. This self-regulation is problematic in two ways: first, no scientific evidence shows that a boy like physique is essential for best performance. Second, the stress from being pressured to achieve a particular body, as well as the shame that resulted from being unable to achieve the idealised physique, eventually caused the swimmers to develop an unhealthy relationship with their developing bodies. We highlight how those immersed in sporting contexts should recognise the serious implications of gender practices and power relations underpinning the male coach-female athlete dynamic in competitive sport.

Background: Research in sport coaching and sport pedagogy including studies published in this special issue bring to the fore the relationship between learning and culture in contexts of high-performance sport. This paper acknowledged that how learning, culture and their relationship are conceptualised is a crucial issue for researchers and professionals in high-performance sport. Purpose and approach: This paper arises from a theoretical analysis of the research studies presented in this special issue. The analysis undertaken focused on the understanding and representation of the concepts of learning and culture and critically examined the methodological application of particular conceptualisations. The intention was to extend insight into both theoretical and methodological issues associated with understanding and researching athlete and coach learning, and high-performance sport settings. Findings and discussion: This paper identifies tendencies for separatist and reductionist thinking about learning and culture in high-performance sport settings. A relational perspective is identified as critical to extending research and professional practice that is directed towards learning and/or culture. Researchers are urged to avoid identifying either athlete or coach learning (only) with specific events or experiences, and similarly avoid positioning culture as something that sits apart from athletes' and coaches' participation and learning in elite sport settings. The dual notions of "learning practices as cultural practice" and "cultural practice as pedagogical practice" are proposed as a basis for holistic thinking about learning and culture in high-performance sport settings. The extent to which such thinking is reflected in the various contributions to the special issue is considered. Attention is then directed to the methodological challenges that researchers face if they are to reflect a conceptualisation of learning as both embedded and embodied in cultural practices. Challenging and extending the underlying vision of learning that researchers, coaches and athletes have is revealed as a critical consideration in regard to research design, data collection and ways in which participants are variously positioned, represented and "involved" in research. Embodied perspectives are identified as particularly worthy of greater attention in contemporary research that seeks to extend understanding of athlete and/or coaches' learning and lived experiences within and amidst elite sporting cultures. Recent scholarship focusing on the body and lived experience is identified as providing theoretical and methodological insights that can extend future research and practice. Conclusions: Foregrounding a relational perspective is fundamental to extending the understanding of learning and culture in high-performance sport. Future research also needs to clearly embrace the methodological challenges presented by new conceptualisations.

This paper contributes to studies on sociology and the body by exploring my bodily experiences as an Australian elite swimmer in an autoethnographic framework. More specifically, it focuses on the relationship between the regulatory practices of others on my body and my development of self-regulatory practices. The stories in this paper reveal evidence of regulatory practices occurring from four different domains within the Australian elite swimming culture--the coach, the mother, the peers and the "self". I have named the regulatory physiological practices as "ethnophysiological" as they were triggered in the social context of Australian swimming and were legitimated through "values packaged in a scientific wrapping". Autoethnography, an "autobiographical genre of writing" has been utilised as it enables the reader to vicariously share my bodily experiences, bestowing a voice of authority to my body to reveal personal experiences, voices and feelings. Within this paper, I will re-tell my stories of being an elite swimmer. I will detail stories of enaction, coach and peer regulation and self-regulation occurring within the elite culture persisting my career over a nine-year period. I use Sparkes' question in regard to embodiment to reflexively shape my analysis; "what do my memories reveal about the socialisation of my body" and draw on literature relevant to sociology and the body.

Australian Swimming functions on meritocratic principles as athletes are immersed in a culture that focuses on achievement. Meritocratic principles are accompanied by a technocentric ideology where a "swimmer body" is a commodity "viewed as an instrument and object for manipulation" (Baine, 1990, p. 29) in order to achieve success. This paper focuses on swimming as a social practice. My experiences as an Australian Swimming representative reveal how my body was viewed as a malleable object that was trained and manipulated to a perceived ideal for the sake of performance. As a consequence, I began purging (and complying) my body in an attempt to conform to an idealistic shape set by Australian team managers and coaches and other social regulators.

Objectives Qualitative research on physically active mothers has shown that recreational sport may allow women to resist good mother ideals that often constrain exercise. The purpose of this study was to extend this understanding in a socio-cultural context by examining how recreational athlete mother identities were constructed within one form of new media - blogging. Design A qualitative approach grounded in discursive psychology was used to theorize athlete mother identities as subject positions constructed within particular discourses circulated within a blog. Method Critical discourse analysis of 30 stories and 177 reader comments from the North American online running community Another Mother Runner , was conducted. Visual data analysis of 102 images accompanying stories also contextualized the textual meanings of discourses and subject positions. Results Two primary discourses were identified: discourse of transformation and empowerment and a discourse of disruption and resolution . Subject positions constructed within these two intersecting discourses were role mother/advocate and resilient mother runner . Conclusions This study extends discursive psychology literature in sport and exercise psychology as well as media work on athlete mother identities within sport psychology into the realm of the internet and identity construction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]