Speaker
Description
Objectives
Doping confessions constitute major crises for athletes. We know from communication studies that they regularly turn to different self-presentational strategies to reconstruct their spoilt identities (Yar 2014). However, little is known of how confessions affect and change the subjective construction of a sporting career as a whole.
Methods
Therefore, we conducted a case study of the former professional cyclist Michael Barry who admitted to doping in 2012. Most interestingly, Barry wrote two autobiographies—one before his confession and one afterwards. Using narrative analysis (Riessman 2008; Douglas & Carless 2014), we systematically compare these autobiographies to reveal how the autobiographical construction of his professional career changes after the confession.
Findings
We will see that the narrative type turned from a story of success to one of decline, which include aspects of, first and foremost, social relationships, sporting success, and passion for cycling.
Discussion and conclusion
Our presentation adds not only more subtle insights into athletes’ self-presentational strategies already known, but also shows how self-understanding and identity construction changes by the narration of a different self. The results from this case study may thus provide sensitising concepts for more comprehensive studies in the future.
Literature
Douglas, K., & Carless, D. (2014). Life story research in sport: Understanding the experiences of elite and professional athletes through narrative. Routledge.
Riessman, C. K. (2008). Narrative Methods for the Human Sciences. Sage.
Yar, M. (2014). Crime, deviance and doping: Fallen sports stars, autobiography and the management of stigma. Palgrave MacMillan.
