Becoming and being a Master's athlete

This paper explores the experiences of participation in the Australian Master’s Games. Drawing on preliminary research on the 2017 event, the paper documents and analyses the ways in which Master’s athletes define and understand their social and sporting identities. As well as addressing low physical activity engagement in older life through an ‘active ageing’ lens, training for and competing in the Master’s Games offers a key source of identity-making among participants that shapes their social world more broadly.