The gift of sport: An autoethnographic inquiry into sport culture and the construction of identity

This thesis examines how the cultural structures which guide and control sport impact on the construction of an athlete's identity. Specifically, I use autoethnography and narrative inquiry to explore how my lived experiences in sport shaped my identity as a competitive female athlete. Ten narratives are presented and represent a cross-section of an athletic career that included triumphs, tragedies and interruptions. Particular attention is paid to the gendering of sport and how being female impacted on my experiences; the effect of injury on an athlete's self-esteem and future plans, and the psychological and emotional effects of retiring from sport sooner than expected. Reflexive writing is used as a method to discover knowledge gleaned from my personal athletic experiences. The reader is invited to re-interpret these narratives and to generate questions and insights in relation to their own possibly similar experiences. The deconstruction of identity through writing and renegotiating interpretations is a means of reconnecting with long forgotten affiliated identities.