Purpose
The aim of the project is to deepen our understanding of what constitutes high-quality support during pregnancy and motherhood among female elite athletes, and how such support varies over time and across contexts. The project also explores how the presence or absence of support influences athletes’ holistic development and their ability to navigate the transition into motherhood within an elite sport career.
Project Description
The project consists of three qualitative sub-studies (a retrospective study, a case study, and a longitudinal study) that explore different perspectives on support for pregnancy and motherhood in elite sport. Data collection will primarily be interviews, and participants include current and former elite athletes, as well as members of athlete support teams and sport organizations (e.g., clubs and national governing bodies). By combining elite athletes’ perspectives with an organizational perspective, the project examines how pregnancy and motherhood are understood, negotiated, and managed as a career transition in Norwegian elite sport, and what is experienced as “high-quality support” in practice.
