Understanding Varsity Athlete's Resistance to Sports' Culture of Risk (CoR)

Abstract

Sport’s “culture of risk” (CoR) normalizes and glorifies playing through pain as a marker of an athlete’s character and commitment. High-profile athletes like Simone Biles and Chris Borland have publicly resisted the CoR by prioritizing their health over participation. Their ability to do so––and to withstand criticism––is enabled, in part, by the capital they enjoy as prolympic athletes. This thesis explores whether (and how) athletes with comparatively less visibility and resources can challenge the CoR’s expectations. Thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews with ten (10) Canadian varsity athletes revealed that participants negotiated competing desires to be both cautious of their health and committed to performance.

Ambivalence is used as a conceptual lens to describe this tension, shaped by the forms and limits of participants’ capital. In this sense, ambivalence was not a universal stance, but one made possible by the relative privilege afforded to varsity athletes in Canada