Project Summary
Researchers are beginning to pay greater attention to the connections and contradictions between sport, health and healthcare. Despite the conventional wisdom that greater participation in sport and physical activity enhances health and the quality of life, more and more evidence points to the ways in which sport participation is not always healthful or beneficial. Nowhere is this more evident than for athletes participating in high performance sport. The ideology of excellence within elite sport demands the professionalized and scientifically calculated pursuit of the linear record on the world sporting stage which in turn demands, on the part of the athlete, the development of levels of disregard for the body in the pursuit of sporting excellence. Although our understanding of athletes’ immersion in sport’s “culture of risk” is growing – a culture that sees the unquestioned acceptance, production and reproduction of health-compromising norms (e.g., pain/injury tolerance, dangerous dieting practices or the use of performance-enhancing drugs), there has been a relative absence of research exploring other social, economic and political determinants of athletes’ health and wellbeing.
There is extensive national and international research documenting the ways in which social determinants of health (SDOH) influence the health of individuals and communities and are directly related to the ways in which resources are organized and distributed among the members of a society. SDOH impact and influence participation in sport and physical activity and, in turn, are impacted and influenced by, in varying degrees, participation in sport and physical activity. This study is interested in examining the material conditions of athletes’ lives, as structured by the Canadian sport system and Canadian sport policy, and the ways in which those material conditions frame and impact their health and wellbeing. In other words, the structure of the Canadian sport system, as guided by sport policy, frames the production of high performance and the health-compromising realities for sport participants.
This project investigated the social determinants of high performance athletes’ health in Canada and the material conditions that contribute to or detract from athletes’ health and wellbeing. The foci of the project included: 1) exploring athletes’ lived experiences with their health and wellbeing in relation to the material conditions of their lives; 2) studying the incidence of compromised health among athletes, particularly those participating in representative high performance sport; 3) constructing and administering a quantitative bilingual survey questionnaire on the social determinants of athletes’ health; and 4) developing a framework of the social determinants of health (SDOH) for athletes at the pan-Canadian level. At a theoretical level, the first objective of this project was to critically analyze and bring into focus the ways in which the material conditions of being an athlete, particularly in high performance sport, influence one’s health and wellbeing. The second objective was to identify the ways in which the high performance sport system and, by implication, the state structure mediates the material conditions of athletes’ lives and protects or endangers their health and wellbeing. Finally, we endeavoured to situate athletes’ health and wellbeing within broader discussions of athletes’ lived experiences, and contribute to a growing body of knowledge that theorizes and contextualizes the relationship between sport and health in Canada.
Research Methods
This three-year project employed both qualitative and quantitative research methods. Qualitatively, the project involved in-depth, semi-structured interviews with athletes. The qualitative portion of the project also includes some documentary research on relevant federal and provincial/territorial sport policies in relation to the material conditions of athletes’ lives. For the quantitative aspect, the key activity was the development and administration of a bilingual survey questionnaire on the social determinants of athletes’ health. The bilingual survey questionnaire was distributed cross-country to athletes registered with provincial and national sport organizations.
Research Results
Results from the qualitative and quantitative portions of the study indicate a number of key themes: that health is a relative concept among athletes and their parents; that many athletes rely, often heavily, on others for material support; and that there remain barriers to participation in high performance sport particularly with regard to socioeconomic status. Contextually, a number of social forces within and outside of high performance sport work to perpetuate the inaccessibility of sport for all including: the whittling of public budgets for sport/recreation facilities, programs and services; the continued focus on downstream, rather than upstream, determinants of health; and the sustained and, in fact, heightened emphasis on performance over health within the high performance sport system as Canada participated in the 2008 Beijing and 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games and prepares for other major international games (e.g., 2012 London Olympics). Limitations with this study focus predominantly on the survey questionnaire and its relative low return rate.
Policy Implications
High performance athletes comprise a unique community within Canada given the work that they do – the term ‘work’ is underscored here not only in reference to the actual extensive time, costs and labour athletes invest in the pursuit of sporting success. This project contributes to our understanding the social determinants of athletes’ health and in understanding the ways in which the Canadian sport system, including Canadian sport policy, frames the material conditions of athletes’ lives. Information on the social determinants of athletes’ health has policy implications for sport participation as results indicate that: 1) socio-economic barriers continue to prevent access to full participation for some athletes, even in spite of sport-specific policies and programs to mediate the influence of income; and 2) socio-economic stresses negatively impact the health and well-being of some athletes as well as members of their support systems (i.e., their parents, spouses or families).
Next Steps
At this point in time, data continues to come in from the quantitative survey however next steps include the refinement of the survey tool and another attempt at distribution cross-country. Thematically, it will be important to map the results from high performance athletes to changes in sport programming at community levels as community sport is often the first point in the Canadian sport system in which high performance athletes are introduced to their activity, exposed to the development system and begin to interact with others (coaches, teammates, competitors).