Sporting parents on the pool deck: Living out a sporting culture?

Three athletes’ narratives that centre on their perceptions of how their parents’ identities were positioned amidst performance and perfection discourses are the focus of this paper. The aim of this research was to critically explore and categorise the three athletes’ narrative about their parents in relation to performance and perfection discourses in sport. We explore whether parents ‘lived the part of the athlete parent’, ‘resisted the part of the athlete parent’, or ‘played the part of the athlete parent’. This narrative gives voice to three athletes and has been subsequently utilised as the primary methodological approach. This paper makes visible how knowledge born from a sporting culture may influence the identity of athletes’ parents. The issues raised are important for athletes, sporting parents and coaches to consider.