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“Maybe I’m just not good enough?”: British swimmers’ experiences of attempting to qualify for the Olympic Games

Libby Mitchell, Camilla Knight Orcid Logo, Robert Morris, Stephen D. Mellalieu

Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports, Volume: 31, Issue: 7, Pages: 1558 - 1573

Swansea University Authors: Libby Mitchell, Camilla Knight Orcid Logo

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DOI (Published version): 10.1111/sms.13953

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore the transitional experiences of British swimmers as they attempted to qualify for the Olympic Games and gain a place in the British Swimming World Class Performance Programme. An interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA) approach was adopted (Smith JA. Psy...

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Published in: Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports
ISSN: 0905-7188 1600-0838
Published: Wiley 2021
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URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa56425
first_indexed 2021-03-11T10:26:54Z
last_indexed 2021-12-02T04:13:00Z
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spelling 2021-12-01T13:24:28.4883264 v2 56425 2021-03-11 “Maybe I’m just not good enough?”: British swimmers’ experiences of attempting to qualify for the Olympic Games b47a66931d7d144ea70f0a36d99fdebf Libby Mitchell Libby Mitchell true false 6c81176f7e92c7c04ff6cfb8f1a0ed60 0000-0001-5806-6887 Camilla Knight Camilla Knight true false 2021-03-11 The purpose of this study was to explore the transitional experiences of British swimmers as they attempted to qualify for the Olympic Games and gain a place in the British Swimming World Class Performance Programme. An interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA) approach was adopted (Smith JA. Psychol Health 1996;11:261–271). Six swimmers (aged 20–25 years), one of each of their parents, and four coaches completed interviews leading up to and following Olympic trials over an eight‐month period. Audio recordings were transcribed verbatim and analyzed following the guidelines set out by Smith and Osborne (Smith JA, Osborn M. Qualitative psychology: A practical guide to research methods. London: Sage; 2003:51–80). Results indicated that athletes’ transition experiences were characterized by a range of demands, which were categorized into five higher‐order themes (a) Questioning “Am I good enough?”; (b) Managing and fulfilling expectations; (c) Operating within an environment that is working against them; (d) Lacking support and understanding of self and demands; and (e) Maintaining balance versus being an international swimmer. Overall, the results indicate that this attempted transition is complex, challenging, and unique and largely influenced by self‐confidence. Addressing the individual factors impacting on athletes’ self‐confidence appears critical to enhancing swimmers’ transitional experiences at the highest level. Journal Article Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports 31 7 1558 1573 Wiley 0905-7188 1600-0838 career transitions, confidence, international sport, social support, swimming 1 7 2021 2021-07-01 10.1111/sms.13953 COLLEGE NANME COLLEGE CODE Swansea University SU Library paid the OA fee (TA Institutional Deal) 2021-12-01T13:24:28.4883264 2021-03-11T10:24:31.6774181 Faculty of Science and Engineering School of Aerospace, Civil, Electrical, General and Mechanical Engineering - Sport and Exercise Sciences Libby Mitchell 1 Camilla Knight 0000-0001-5806-6887 2 Robert Morris 3 Stephen D. Mellalieu 4 56425__20451__4c931c61ae16445f92aab3ed750e18c2.pdf sms.13953.pdf 2021-07-26T14:51:05.0423191 Output 223227 application/pdf Version of Record true Copyright: The Authors. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. true eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
title “Maybe I’m just not good enough?”: British swimmers’ experiences of attempting to qualify for the Olympic Games
spellingShingle “Maybe I’m just not good enough?”: British swimmers’ experiences of attempting to qualify for the Olympic Games
Libby Mitchell
Camilla Knight
title_short “Maybe I’m just not good enough?”: British swimmers’ experiences of attempting to qualify for the Olympic Games
title_full “Maybe I’m just not good enough?”: British swimmers’ experiences of attempting to qualify for the Olympic Games
title_fullStr “Maybe I’m just not good enough?”: British swimmers’ experiences of attempting to qualify for the Olympic Games
title_full_unstemmed “Maybe I’m just not good enough?”: British swimmers’ experiences of attempting to qualify for the Olympic Games
title_sort “Maybe I’m just not good enough?”: British swimmers’ experiences of attempting to qualify for the Olympic Games
author_id_str_mv b47a66931d7d144ea70f0a36d99fdebf
6c81176f7e92c7c04ff6cfb8f1a0ed60
author_id_fullname_str_mv b47a66931d7d144ea70f0a36d99fdebf_***_Libby Mitchell
6c81176f7e92c7c04ff6cfb8f1a0ed60_***_Camilla Knight
author Libby Mitchell
Camilla Knight
author2 Libby Mitchell
Camilla Knight
Robert Morris
Stephen D. Mellalieu
format Journal article
container_title Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports
container_volume 31
container_issue 7
container_start_page 1558
publishDate 2021
institution Swansea University
issn 0905-7188
1600-0838
doi_str_mv 10.1111/sms.13953
publisher Wiley
college_str Faculty of Science and Engineering
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hierarchy_top_id facultyofscienceandengineering
hierarchy_top_title Faculty of Science and Engineering
hierarchy_parent_id facultyofscienceandengineering
hierarchy_parent_title Faculty of Science and Engineering
department_str School of Aerospace, Civil, Electrical, General and Mechanical Engineering - Sport and Exercise Sciences{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Science and Engineering{{{_:::_}}}School of Aerospace, Civil, Electrical, General and Mechanical Engineering - Sport and Exercise Sciences
document_store_str 1
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description The purpose of this study was to explore the transitional experiences of British swimmers as they attempted to qualify for the Olympic Games and gain a place in the British Swimming World Class Performance Programme. An interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA) approach was adopted (Smith JA. Psychol Health 1996;11:261–271). Six swimmers (aged 20–25 years), one of each of their parents, and four coaches completed interviews leading up to and following Olympic trials over an eight‐month period. Audio recordings were transcribed verbatim and analyzed following the guidelines set out by Smith and Osborne (Smith JA, Osborn M. Qualitative psychology: A practical guide to research methods. London: Sage; 2003:51–80). Results indicated that athletes’ transition experiences were characterized by a range of demands, which were categorized into five higher‐order themes (a) Questioning “Am I good enough?”; (b) Managing and fulfilling expectations; (c) Operating within an environment that is working against them; (d) Lacking support and understanding of self and demands; and (e) Maintaining balance versus being an international swimmer. Overall, the results indicate that this attempted transition is complex, challenging, and unique and largely influenced by self‐confidence. Addressing the individual factors impacting on athletes’ self‐confidence appears critical to enhancing swimmers’ transitional experiences at the highest level.
published_date 2021-07-01T20:00:28Z
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