‘God Given Gift’: A study into the role of ‘race’, gender and nation in

the construction of athletic identities.

Atalanta Elizabeth Copeman-Papas

Supervised by Dr David Landy Submitted to the Department of Sociology,

Trinity College Dublin

15th March 2013

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ABSTRACT

The position of sport as a domain for imbuing cultural norms as well as offering a space to contest them offers unique prospects for study. Whilst many feminist studies have addressed the issue of sport as a significant space for constructing gender (Dworkin and Messner 2001) and race theorists have investigated its potential for cultural resistance (Lawrence 2005), there has been little investigation of the intersections between ‘race’, gender and nation in sport. Further, there has been little previous investigation of identities constructed with regard to these oppressions in sport, particularly outside of the USA or UK. This study investigated the specific athletic identities of six high-performance track-and-field athletes. Through the process of qualitative interviewing, participants constructed subject positions representing their athletic selves. The study found that the positions of hardworking

athlete and the White athlete were considered synonymous and were placed in opposition to the natural Black athlete position. Racialised sporting stereotypes, such as the myth of Black athletic superiority, were discussed freely and openly in the interviews, and reflected a belief in wider ‘colonial fantasies’ relating to the Black body (Carrington 2002). Participants described, through these positions, a feeling of self-denigration when compared to the perceived superior Black track-and-field athlete. Further, participants made empirical changes to their training, such as changing event, due to racial considerations. A sense of national identity was clearly evident in the one American participant; however, there was no comparative sense of Irish identity for the other five. When considering the intersections with gender, there was more of an acceptance of opportunity for an Irish female athlete, displayed in the referencing of successful Irish women in track-and-field. A level of self-denigration existed with these athletes, which seemed to be attributed to a sense of ‘Whiteness’ in relation to the Othered successful Black athletes. This project introduces these notions in an Irish context, and opens up the area for further study.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank my supervisor, Dr David Landy for his continued support and contributions to my understanding of the subject. Also Dr Mark Ingham, who has given me guidance and solace in all things academic, my mother for making me a

feminist and my father for teaching me to question it all.

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CONTENTS

ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................... i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ..................................................................................... ii CONTENTS ........................................................................................................ iii-iv CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ............................................................................ 1

1.1 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................ 1 1.2 RESEARCH AIMS ....................................................................................................... 2 1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS ............................................................................................. 3 1.4 THESIS STRUCTURE .................................................................................................. 3

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW .................................................................. 6

2.1 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................ 6 2.2 THE BIOLOGICAL DEBATE ....................................................................................... 7 2.3 THE EFFECTS OF ‘BIO-RACISM’ ................................................................................ 8 2.4 GENDER AND SPORT .............................................................................................. 11 2.5 NATION AND SPORT ............................................................................................... 14

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY ......................................................................... 17

3.1 INTRODUCTION & CONCEPTUAL BACKDROP ....................................................... 17 3.2 ACCESS & SAMPLING ............................................................................................. 19 3.3 DATA COLLECTION TECHNIQUES ......................................................................... 20 3.4 DATA ANALYSIS ...................................................................................................... 22 3.5 ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS ................................................................................... 22

CHAPTER 4: THE ATHLETIC SELF IN TRACK & FIELD ............................. 25

4.1 HARDWORKING ATHLETE POSITION ..................................................................... 25 The mental game of choosing an event ................................................................................ 27

4.2 WHITE ATHLETE POSITION ................................................................................... 29 The Othering of the Black athlete and the mental block ......................................................... 29 The anomalous White athlete as a figure of hope .................................................................. 32

4.3 BEING AN IRISH ATHLETE ..................................................................................... 34 4.4 GENDER INTERSECTING WITH ‘RACE’ AND NATION ............................................. 36

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS ............................................................................. 39

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5.1 SUMMARY ............................................................................................................... 39 5.2 ANSWERING THE RESEARCH QUESTIONS .............................................................. 39 5.3 LIMITATIONS & IMPLICATIONS ............................................................................. 40

APPENDIX I: Table of Participants .......................................................................... 43 APPENDIX II: Interview Guide ............................................................................... 44 APPENDIX I: Consent Form ................................................................................... 45 BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................... 47

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CHAPTER ONE

Introduction

This thesis contends that sport matters. The argument that sport has far more political significance than just existing as a leisure activity or a pastime removed from the real world is nothing new. Sport has long existed as a domain for representation, and sometimes resistance, of wider ‘race’, class and gender struggles, as well as allowing for an exaggerated sense of nationalism (Cronin 1999, Carrington 1998, 2008). Feminist arguments within the sociology of sport have argued that sport is a political domain, as it allows a significant opportunity for values to be transferred onto those taking part. These values, such as competitiveness and strength, are inherently masculine, and reinforce the patriarchal hegemonic order (Gilroy 1989, Dworkin and Messner 2001, Carrington 2002). Ben Carrington and Ian McDonald (2003) contend that sport is a political site, which has been used as a kind of ‘soft policing’. Carrington and McDonald use the example of the building of the Brixton Recreation Centre in 1982, arguing it was constructed as a response to the 1981 Brixton riots. For Carrington, the building of ‘Brixton Rec’ served as ‘a state-sponsored attempt at overseeing and controlling the leisure activities of … perceived problematic groups’ (2004: 4). In contrast to this use of sport as a method of Foucauldian social control, there are further arguments that sport can also be used as a positive space, one for cultural resistance and national pride. Arguments citing sport as a space for cultural resistance are common when discussing the perception of the successful Black athlete, with sport being used as an arena for displaying power over White peers (Cole 1996). Carrington (2004: 4) describes the role of cricket in the West Indies as a ‘articulating and helping to frame a sense of what it means to be ‘West Indian’’, further, the ‘Celtic Fringe’ nations have often been seen as using sport as an important means of developing a sense of nation and resisting their coloniser (Tuck 2003). Ireland is a pertinent example of using sport as a political and cultural arena; the Gaelic Athletic

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Association (GAA), established in 1884, served as a way to (re)claim Irish culture, and disassociate from their British oppressors. With this in mind, it becomes apparent that sport matters; its capacity as a space for social control as well as for national resistance make it a key domain for cultural politics. Viewing it as only a leisure activity or an apolitical hobby would be to grossly understate the potential for sport to make an impact on individuals, both on structural and personal levels. It has been argued that sport, whilst representational of wider social norms, characterises an overt and extreme version of these norms. Thus, sports constructs an arena for acceptable ‘race’ and gender stereotypes, such as the ‘Bio-racist’ thinking constituting the argument for Black athletic superiority (Hokowhitu 2011). This research is concerned with the effects of these sporting stereotypes on the individuals at the heart of a sport. I have chosen to study track-and-field, not only because of my personal affiliations with the sport, but also because debates regarding ‘race’ and gender are common. Particularly in the wake of the 2012 Olympics, three years since the Caster Semenya controversy and Christophe Lemaitre’s breaking of the ten-second-barrier, track-and-field seems steeped in relevant material. Research Aims This research attempts to explore the issues of ‘race’, gender and nation in sport, through examining the identity constructions of six high-performance track-and-field athletes. Through interviewing these participants, I hope to further understand the personal and emotional effects of the political and cultural aspects of sport. Whilst the primary focus of this research is on the effects of racialised stereotypes in sport, the intersections between gender, nation and other cultural factors in creating an athletic identity are also under investigation. Through examining the unique athletic subject positions of these participants, the hope is to begin to understand the particular athletic identity created by Irish track-and-field athletes. The primary objective of this study is to understand the athletic identities of the participants, however, I created research questions in order provide a loose framework

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for the research. They exist more as a guide for the remainder of this project, as opposed to strict questions, which must be answered. Taking into account the review of the literature, and the responses of the interviews, the aims and specific nature of the research aims will be fluid, allowing for an in-depth exploration of the nature of athletic identities. Research Questions 1. How do track-and-field athletes take-up/resist racial stereotypes within sport?

• How are personal experiences within sport shaped by hegemonic stereotypes?

• Are there different pressures, fears and goals for Irish athletes based on ‘race’-based expectations?

2. How are these sports experiences shaped differently for men and women?

• Do women construct themselves differently with regard to racialised stereotypes?

• Are racialised stereotypes, as well as intellectual, cultural and personal factors more or less pervasive for women in track and field?

Thesis Structure Chapter Two will review the existing literature relating to ‘race’, gender and nation in sport. First investigating the arguments relating to the myth of Black athletic superiority, then considering cultural arguments for the successes of Black athletes in many sports. Biological arguments are briefly reviewed, however, as this project is more concerned with the effects of such stereotypes than the actual debates, they are not considered in much depth. The context and implications of these debates are examined, including the hyper-sexualisation and savagery inherently associated with ‘Black brawn’ and the colonial thinking portrayed. The chapter then explores the effects of racial stereotypes on athletes, both Black and White, in terms of both performance and emotional responses. This describes a negative effect on the lives of some athletes, with stereotyping affecting coaching, sports participation and emotions

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regarding sports. The chapter then moves on to consider the roles of gender and nation in sport, examining the hyper-sexualisation and paradoxical masculinisation of the Black female athlete. The intersections and conflicts between being ‘female’ and being an ‘athlete’ are investigated, highlighting the uniqueness of these intersections. Subsequently, the chapter reviews the literature on the place of nation in sport, with a particular focus on Ireland and the GAA. The chapter concludes that there is an inadequate level of research into the experiences of White athletes with regard to these stereotypes, as well as noting that the intersections between nation, gender and ‘race’ have been scarcely explored. Chapter Three outlines the methodologies used in this study, looking first at the theoretical justifications and then the techniques employed. I argue for the use of qualitative methods in cultural research, as they allow for a deeper understanding of the personal and everyday nature of culture and identity. The study employs a case study design, in order to garner knowledge of the particular phenomenon in its real-world context. Although acknowledging the lack of generalisability of case studies, it is argued that this is not a major concern, as the research is pursuing an in-depth understanding of the particular experience. The chapter describes the processes regarding sampling and access; purposive sampling was employed as it allowed access to participants who were athletes with a lot of experience in competitive track-and-field, across a variety of events, who were willing to share their personal experiences. As a member of a Dublin athletics club, I utilised my connections and used a gatekeeper, allowing me access to two Dublin high-performance clubs. I utilised the Facebook groups for these clubs in order to acquire participants. Utilising the ‘guided conversation’ approach, I conducted six interviews, each lasting around half an hour. Data was then transcribed, and subject positions were identified through declarations, direct claims, reports, narratives, or stories within the interviews. The chapter also explores the ethical issues surrounding interviews, and social research as a whole. The interviews, in this case, ran a risk of calling attention to participants’ potentially racist thinking; care was taken to avoid direct accusations of racism or bigotry.

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Chapter Four analyses the findings of the study, outlining the subject positions and intersections constructed in the interviews. Two key subject positions were identified: the hardworking athlete and the White athlete. These were intersecting positions, in opposition to the natural athlete and the Black athlete, who were described as ‘unfair’ and less diligent. Further, the chapter describes the lack of a particular feeling of ‘Irishness’ or a national identity in the athletic selves of the participants. The intersections between gender and ‘race’ and nation in the subject positions described are also investigated in this chapter. The women in the study described more of an Irish athletic identity and one participant, Hannah, identified Black female sprinters as masculine. The connotations of these subject positions are also explored. Chapter Five concludes this thesis with an analysis of the achievements and limitations of the study. After a brief summary, the chapter discusses the potential advantages of using ethnographies in cultural research. Further, the limitation of the monocultural nature of this study is discussed, highlighting the lack of a comparison in this research.

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CHAPTER TWO

Literature Review The process of investigating racialised discourses within sport reveals the importance of ‘race’, gender and nation as intersecting oppressions in the area. This review of the literature investigates, primarily, the arguments surrounding race in the sporting context; the ‘biological’ arguments, the backlash and underlying assumptions of ‘bio-racism’ in sport are investigated in detail. Further, the review continues toward an understanding of the intersections between race, gender and nation, where each contributes to a more full understanding of the others. Gender and race are particularly important to discuss together in sport; according to Ben Carrington (1998, 2001, 2002), racism in sport is largely associated with notions of masculinity and sexualisation, which cannot be disassociated from gender. Nation is particularly salient in the Irish context; sports, such as rugby, soccer and the Gaelic games, have regularly been positioned as a space for nationalism and resistance in Ireland (Bairner 1996, Cronin 1999, Maguire and Tuck 1999, Sugden and Bairner 1999, Tuck 2003). The sociology of sport has long looked at the function of sport as an arena for imbuing certain values onto participants; leadership, strength, discipline, competitiveness (Frey and Eitzen 1991). These, typically masculine (Lipsyte 1979), values being transferred through sport have been viewed as a way of reinforcing the hegemonic order (Whitson 1990). Much of the work with regard to sport’s ability to sustain societies’ power balances has focused on gender relationships, arguing that sport is one of the ‘key institutional [site] for the study of the social construction of gender’ (Dworkin and Messner 2002: 17. See also Gilroy 1989, Hall 2002, Kane and Lenskyj 1998). The idea that ‘making gender may be sport’s chief function’ in society has strong implications for sport’s ability to display wider societal values, and thus is an important area to look at with regard to understanding the various axes of oppression (Dworkin and Messner 2002: 17). This work is primarily concerned with the athletes’ racialised understanding of themselves as athletes; however, work relating

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to hegemonic masculinity in sports is invaluable in informing the understanding of race relations within the sports arena. This chapter investigates the literature and debates surrounding the issues framed in the research questions: ‘race’, gender and nation in sports. The outline of the biological argument and the subsequent criticisms and connotations serve to provide a background to the race stereotypes that exist in sport. Previous research on the relationships between race, sport, gender and athletic identities are investigated, giving grounding for the tools used in this project. The ’Biological’ ability debate The argument that, in Carl Lewis’ words, ‘Blacks are made better’ (quoted in Malik 2000: 1) holds considerable weight among ‘biologists, anthropologists and athletes themselves’ (Malik 2000, See also Jackson 1989, Davis 1990, Sailes 1993, Davis and Harris 1998, Denham et al. 2002). Jon Entine’s (2001) book Taboo: Why Black

Athletes Dominate Sports and Why We’re Afraid to Talk About It provides a recent explanation of, what has been called by Brendan Hokowhitu (2011), the bio-racist, genetic argument. Entine argues that certain body shapes and genetics lead to an advantage in certain sports, claiming, most prominently, that East Africans are built for long distance running, and those of West-African descent are built for sprinting and jumping. Scientific evidence to confirm the myth of Black athletic superiority is inconclusive, and alternative, cultural and environmental explanations are expansive. There has been a strong backlash against bio-racism, and the genetics based hypothesis has come under extensive criticism (Wiggins 1989, Hokowhitu 2011, Carrington 2002). Entine’s claim that those of ‘West-African descent’ are genetically predisposed to be better at sprinting and jumping also disregards environmental and cultural factors. Entine tells that only those of West-African descent have ever run the 100m in under ten seconds, however, in 2010, the Caucasian Frenchman Christophe Lemaitre ran the race in 9.92 seconds (IAAF 2013). In addition, the tenth best time ever run by a

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woman in the 100m was by Irina Privalova, an Eastern European Caucasian woman (IAAF 2013). Further, either North American or Caribbean athletes claimed all of the ten best times for the men’s 100m and 400m. Whilst Entine’s argument would stand, as these athletes are all of West-African descent, his disregard of environmental factors does not explain the success of athletes from these countries over athletes from West Africa itself. Another criticism of Entine regards his claim that a genetic advantage, in terms of body shape and slow-twitch fibres, means that East Africans, and specifically Kenyans from the Rift Valley region, are predisposed to be better at long-distance running. It is true that many successful long-distance runners come from Kenya, and further that many originate from the village of Iten in the Rift Valley. However, there are arguments to suggest that environmental factors, such as the high-altitude, simple diet, winning mentality and running-focused culture are more likely to be the cause of this success than a genetic difference (Mählmann 1989, Bale 1996, Hamilton 2000). Arguments against bio-racism suggest alternative reasoning for the overrepresentation of Black athletes in certain sports. These arguments suggest that sport is one of the few arenas where Black men and women can publicly display power and exert control (Wiggins 1989, Carrington 2002, 2008). Carrington’s (2008) research into a Black cricket club in the North of England found that cricket was used as an arena for cultural resistance, as a place for these men to display power over their White peers. Further, Cheryl L. Cole’s (1996: 372) work tellingly described basketball player Michael Jordan, with his influential position in the USA at the time, as an ‘embodiment of agency and transformative possibility and an affective sign of unity and utopic possibilities’. The power relationships between Black and White athletes are of particular interest to this project, as the existence of sport as a domain for Black cultural resistance may displace some White athletes. Effects of ‘Bio-Racism’ Whilst the debates regarding Black athletic superiority rage on, this research is far more concerned with the underlying assumptions and meanings, as well as the wider

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implications and effects, of these bio-racist lines of thought. Despite pertinent cultural and environmental arguments, and the lack of any scientific confirmation of the genetic arguments, Black athletic superiority is still a pervasive idea throughout Western societies (Jackson 1989, Sailes 1993, Davis and Harris 1998, Denham et al. 2002). Studies have found the expectation of Black athletic superiority to be widespread, among coaches (Rasmussen et al. 2005), athletes (Harrison and Lawrence 2004, Hayes and Sugden 1999) and the wider population (Buffington and Fraley 2008). Laurel Davis (1990) identified a White ‘preoccupation’ with performance differences between Black and White athletes, based on inherent racist views in White Western society relating to the savage image of the Black Other. The ideas of Black hyper-sexuality, animalism and savagery have all been brought into the discussion of the myth of Black athletic superiority (Carrington 2002, 2008, Hokowhitu 2011). Frantz Fanon ([1952] 2008) described the lived experience of the Black man as constructed by the White man in Western societies. For Fanon (2008: 84), the White man had ‘woven [him] out of a thousand details, anecdotes [and] stories’ into a savage, animalistic being, just by virtue of his black skin. The construction of the Black man as the savage Other is a method of positioning the White colonial man as a superior being for Stuart Hall (1997a, 1997b) and others (Carrington 2002). With intellect and distinguished mental ability being desirable traits in White Western colonial societies, the diametric opposition of ‘Black brawn versus White brains’ allows for the White man to deem himself superior to the Black Other in his own terms (Jackson 1989: 1. See also Hoch 1979). The implications of this kind of thought provide the justifications for racial dominance and colonialism. It is precisely this kind of thought that labels the White colonial societies progressive and the colonial subjects as backwards. Arguably, nowhere is this relationship better described than in the sports world; literature on men’s sports in the USA confirms the placement of White athletes’ success as attributed mental factors, hard work, working as a team, intelligence and good leadership, whereas Black athletes’ success is more likely to be accredited to their natural ability, or physical prowess (Jackson 1989, Murrell & Curtis 1994, Dufur 1997, Rada & Wulfemeyer 2005, Buffington and Fraley 2008).

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Further, the colonial image of the Black man as a ‘hyper-sexed … animal-like’ savage fits well within the stereotype of an athlete (Carrington 2002: 6). For Carrington, the ideas of ‘athleticism’ and ‘animalism’ can be synonymous, and the stereotyped Black male body has become a metonymic site for these ideas. With the body now claiming a central position in political and cultural representation (Falk 1994, Hall 1997a, 1997b, Cole 2000), the image of the Black sporting body has become increasingly important. The stereotypes, the racial-epidermal schema, associated with the Black body; the dangerous, large-penised, sinful beast, are epitomised by the image of the Black athlete (Fanon 2008, Hoch 1979). Indeed, for Fanon, ‘There is one expression that throughout time has become singularly eroticised: the black [male] athlete’ (2008: 122). These lines of post-colonial thought provide an insight into possible reasons why the bio-racist myth of Black athletic superiority remains pervasive and widespread in White Western societies, as these myths reflect the ‘historical colonial fantasies about the excesses of black sexuality’ that already exist (Carrington 2002: 4). With the diametrical opposition of the Black and White athletes placed as the epitome of these ‘colonial fantasies’, it becomes clear that researching ‘race’ and racism within sport has far wider implications than just for the sporting world (Carrington 2002). If sport-sociologists are to be believed, and sports are an arena in which we reinforce and instill the hegemonic order (Lipsyte 1979, Frey and Eitzen 1991), then there is potential for findings within sport to be significantly extrapolated as examples of a wider attitude (Dworkin and Messner 2002). Studies in the UK and USA have shown a consistent negative effect on the lives of Black and White athletes due to widespread belief in the myth of Black athletic superiority (Stone et al. 1997, Rasmussen et al. 2005, Azzarito and Harrison 2008). Ricky Rasmussen et al. (2005) found that, when presented with limited information about potential sprinters, novice coaches relied on the myth of Black athletic superiority to judge ability. Further studies support this finding with similar results (Johnson et al. 1999, Turner and Jones 2007). Jeff Stone et al. (1997) found that college students internalised the myth, and used this to judge and evaluate the

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performance of basketball players. These findings are significant in the context of this study, as it focuses on the personal experiences of White athletes in a sport judged as dominated by Black athletes. Suzanne Malia Lawrence (2005) studied the qualitative experiences of African-American athletes, with regard to their personal experiences of racism, stereotyping and discrimination. Lawrence found that the athletes in her study were continually conscious of their ‘differences’ and experienced hurt, shock and outrage due to racial incidents. She also found a feeling of empowerment in sport that they did not find outside of the sports field. Lawrence’s findings are supported by further research (Singer 2005, Hoberman 1997, Harrison 2001). Further studies show the significant effects of the natural Black ability myth on White athletes’ athletic participation and performance. Louis Harrison Jr et al. (2004) found that White male high-school students in the USA absorbed the natural Black ability stereotype and were thus discouraged from participating in sports in high-school or pursuing them further. Stone et al. (1999) found that college students exposed to a negative racial stereotype displayed worse performances in their sports, supporting the negative effects of racial stereotyping. Laura Azzarito and Louis Harrison Jr (2008) looked at the effects of the myth of Black and White male and female college students in the USA. They found that White boys accepted the myth and this affected their participation in particular sports. However, with regard to girls, Azzarito and Harrison found that they were far more likely to reject the racialised discourses (see also Stone et al. 1999, Harrison 2001, Stone 2002, Baker et al. 2003, Beilock and McConnell 2004, Hodge et al. 2008). Azzarito and Harrison’s is a particularly relevant finding here, as the examination of gender differences in taking-up or resisting racial discourse in sport is key to the research question. Gender There are few studies considering the intersectionality of gender and other factors within racialised discourses in sport (Anderson and McCormack 2010, Flintoff et al. 2008). The focus, with regard to the Black/White experience in sport, has been set

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mostly on the experiences of men. There is a significant amount of work regarding sport as an area for accentuated masculinity, as well as a space for gender resistance (Gilroy 1989, Kane and Lenskyj 1998, Dworkin and Messner 2002, Hall 2002). The lack of a focus on the intersectional nature of the axes of oppression within sport echoes the criticisms of Fanon for ignoring the Black woman, denying the position of the White woman as Othered, and singularising the Black man as the only Other (Greedharry 2008, Sharpley-Whiting 1998). For Carrington, there is no denying the equal hyper-sexualisation of the Black woman:

the European colonialist gaze was just as fixated with pathologising black female ‘hyper-sexuality’ as it was with black male sexuality, with its fascination in studying black female genitalia as the supposed ‘external signs of a deviant excessive sexuality’ (2002: 7)

Carrington highlights that feminism has a key role to play in understanding the oppressive nature of sports with regards to race. For Carrington, the theory that the sexualisation of female athletes is a way to disempower powerful, strong sportswomen provides a strong explanation as to why the Black male athlete has been overtly sexualised, viewing this as a way to further strip power from the Black man. However, Carrington, whilst addressing the issue somewhat, fails to acknowledge the actual experience of Black women in sports. Historically, the discourse relating to the Black female athlete has, paradoxically, painted her as masculine, as well as hyper-sexualised and promiscuous (Liberti 1999). This construction of the Black female athlete as masculine creates a conflict between the positions of being a ‘woman’, with feminine qualities, as well as an ‘athlete’, who is painted as having masculine qualities (Krane et al. 2004). One needs to look no further than the Caster Semenya controversy in order to ascertain the breadth of this kind of oppressive thinking: Semenya was banned from competition between 2009 and 2010 after competitors in the IAAF World Championships accused her of being a man, due to her physical appearance, using phrases such as ‘breathtakingly butch’ (Karkazis 2012: 4). Semenya was subjected to humiliating tests and a public

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controversy as a result of her physical muscularity. This case sparked a debate with regards to the female sporting body, as unusual levels of androgens, as was the case with Semenya, can be caused by many conditions. Of interest here is the trouble caused by the image of a physically strong woman. Azzarito and Harrison’s (2008) research discovered that female athletes were more likely to reject racialised discourses in sport; this potentially demonstrates a preference for the wider feminine self and, thus, a rejection of masculine athlete discourses. There is a is a relatively small mass of work exploring the experience of minority women in sports, many findings have been significant: Noël Suzanne Harmon’s (2009) research into the experiences of Black student athletes at a predominantly White college in the USA found that the women felt they were treated differently to their White peers and had unfulfilled expectations as student athletes, however they also saw student athletics as an area for cultural resistance. Jennifer Bruening et al. (2005) carried out qualitative research into African-American female student athletes and found coaches, media coverage and their peers significantly silenced them. Bruening’s earlier work found that ‘Being African American, female, and an athlete are truly the ‘intersecting oppressions’’, and further found that African-American female student athletes felt under-supported by their coaches, who did not recognise this oppression (2004: 250). Theory on the effects of the intersections of racism and gender, among other mechanisms of oppression, in sport is equally lacking. There are few works that address this directly, and the experience of women in a racialised sporting world is not widely reported (Vertinsky and Captain 1998, Flintoff et al. 2008). This could be a significant gap, as Patricia Vertinsky and Gwendolyn Captain (1998) describe the stereotypes and position of the Black female athlete as unique from those of male athletes of any ‘race’. Work into the cultural representation of tennis players Venus and Serena Williams further explore issues of media coverage and disparaging intersecting racial and gendered stereotypes (Douglas 2002, Schultz 2005, McKay and Johnson 2008).

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Nation The correlation between certain aspects of sport and a sense of nation is considerable. Mike Cronin (1999) uses soccer as an example, coining the phrase ‘ninety minute patriot’ to describe the ‘World Cup phenomenon’. Cronin expands on this by describing sport as the only arena that transcends social boundaries in order to allow complete strangers a shared sense of national identity and fellowship. Thus, historically, sport has served to unify nations and provide a space for a sense of nation, and thus, resistance against their colonial oppressor; for John Bale, ‘sport is, after war, probably the principal means of collective identification in modern life’ (1986: 18) (see also Bairner 2001, Maguire 1999). Ireland has been a prominent case when considering nation and sport, not only with the unique nature of including players from Northern Ireland alongside those from the Republic of Ireland in the Irish national Rugby Union team, but also with the case of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) (Diffley 1973, Maguire and Tuck 1998, Tuck 2003). The games of rugby and soccer have received a great deal of attention as a domain for cultural resistance and national identity in the ‘Celtic Fringe’ nations of Wales, Scotland and Ireland (Maguire and Tuck 1999, Sugden and Bairner 1999). Whilst Scotland and Wales have embraced these ‘British’ games as an opportunity to ‘beat [their oppressors] at their own games’, Ireland have, instead, used these games to further the unification of their nation (Tuck 2003). Jason Tuck (ibid.: 497) highlights the complex range of national sporting identities the game of rugby union provides for the Irish:

At the Olympic Games, athletes from the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland either compete for Great Britain or Ireland; on the soccer pitch there are teams representing Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. In rugby union, it is significant that the Irish compete as a united sporting nation. As a consequence of this, citizens from the Republic of Ireland also become eligible to represent Great Britain in the “British Lions” touring team.

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Unlike the other ‘Celtic Fringe’ nations, ‘Irish cultural nationalists’ chose to reclaim an Irish national identity with the creation of the GAA in 1884 (Cronin 1999, Bairner 2001). The GAA allowed the opportunity for an Irish cultural identity; they promoted use of the Irish language as well as a revival of other aspects of Irish culture, such as music and dance (Rouse 1993, GAA 2012). Rather than utilising sports as a tool to fight their oppressors, Irish nationalists reclaimed cultural independence with the promotion of their own sports - Gaelic football and hurling (Tuck 2003). With the exception of general discussions regarding the Olympics (Bass 2002, Hardman and Iorwerth 2012), there has been little investigation of the effects of nation in track-and-field. This gap in the literature provides a space for this study, investigating athletic identities in White track-and-field athletes. Conclusion The comparative experiences of Black and White, male and female athletes, along with those of other ‘races’, have scarcely been explored. Although Lawrence (2005: 109) argues that ‘Race plays a key role in the lives of … African American athletes … a role that it does not play in the lives of White athletes’, there is an inadequate level of evidence for the White experience; studies exploring the racialised emotional experiences of athletes are mainly focused on the experience of the Black athlete, with few looking at the effects of racialised conceptions of sports ability on any other ‘races’ (Harrison et al. 2004). This provides a space for the study of White track-and-field athletes, where the literature is lacking. Studies such as Azzarito and Harrison’s (2008) provide a useful comparison of gender and ‘race’ experiences in sport; however, they lack any investigation of identity construction for athletes. This project is interested in the particular effect of ‘race’, gender and nation in the development of athletic identities for track-and-field athletes. The impact of nation is important to consider when researching Irish sporting identities; however, there is a lack of research into the less obviously nation-based sports (such as rugby and the GAA), highlighting a significant gap in the literature, which can be investigated here. It is also noteworthy that research in the areas of ‘race’, gender and sport also considerably

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diminishes once we look outside of the USA, with the majority of the studies and theorising we have considered here originating there.

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CHAPTER THREE

Methodology

This chapter outlines the methodologies and techniques employed in this research, as well as broadly outlining the theoretical justifications for these techniques. The chapter first suggests a broad justification for the qualitative methodologies implemented and then explores the idea of positioning, as used in this study. Further, the chapter explores the practical aspects of the study: sampling and access, data collection and analysis, as well as considering the practical and ethical issues accompanying this sort of study. In explaining the ‘conceptual backdrop’ of this study, Carrington’s simple statement of purpose from his study of the Caribbean Cricket Club seems apt:

The notion that people are ‘active in the creation of culture’ and the need to study the specificity of the location of these everyday sites provides the conceptual backdrop to this study and informs its broadly qualitative methodological focus (2004: 86).

As was demonstrated in the previous chapter, studies on identity and race have benefited from the use of qualitative methods. These methods allow for an understanding of the culture and identity, without looking for an inference or pattern (Bryman 2012). Further, qualitative methods allow for an understanding of identity, through culture, which goes ‘beyond reading them as secondary and insignificant epiphenomenal expressions of wider structural relations, or as the inevitable expressions of some innate and fixed essence’ (Carrington 2004: 84). The focus, in these kinds of cultural studies, is on critically examining ‘how the formation of identity, racism and multiculture is manifest in everyday life’, addressing the micro-level meanings of social problems, such as racism (Back 1996: 6). For these reasons, I have chosen to employ the case study in this research; a strategy

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that involves empirical investigation of a particular contemporary phenomenon in its real life context (Robson 1993). The case study embraces the external influence of its situation; the case study ‘is of interest precisely because the aim is to understand how behaviour and/or processes are influenced by, and influence, context’ (Hartley 2004: 323). With the case study, there are issues with the representativeness of the particular case, and, thus, the generalisability of the research (Innes 2001). However, this research is not necessarily looking to arrive at conclusions about identity in sports as a whole, but rather looking to examine a group of information-rich cases, that provide such a detailed and in-depth description of participants’ experiences of race, gender and nation in sport, that readers can ‘connect to that experience, learn how it is constituted, and deepen their understanding of the issues it reflects’ (Seidman 1991: 41). This study focuses on the self-positioning of the participants, as the research is focused on how the participants ‘take up and are placed in locations from which they interpret their lives’ (Jorgenson 2002: 358). The notion of positioning accepts the nature of identity as fluid and ever changing, embracing a multiplicity of selves and constructed by discourse and interaction. Subject positions incorporate ‘both a conceptual repertoire and a location for persons within the structure of rights for those that use that repertoire’; once individuals have placed themselves in a particular subject position ‘a person inevitably sees the world from the vantage point of that position and in terms of the particular images, metaphors, storylines and concepts which are made relevant within the particular discursive practice in which they are positioned’ (Davies and Harre 2007: 46). Thus, investigating subject positions enables us to glean a deeper understanding of the ways in which individuals make sense of and understand the world. The self is discursively constructed in a specific context, and as such, the self is fluid depending on the circumstance. As such, this research investigated the specific subject positions participants placed themselves in as athletes, within the context of the interview. Participants displayed fluidity between temporary subject positions - shifting between being a ‘White’ or ‘European’ or ‘female’ athlete depending on the context and discourse. The fluctuation between different positions and identities within the research clashes with positivist ideas of capturing the ‘truth’

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or authentic ‘facts’ of the situation. This research attempts to understand how these participants make sense of themselves as athletes, negotiating the emphasised racial, national and gender stereotypes that exist in the sports arena (Carrington 2008). Access and Sampling Due to the specific and investigative nature of this study, I have chosen to employ purposeful sampling (Patton 1990). I chose this method because there was a need for participants who were top Irish athletes, with experience training and competing, across a variety of events, who were also willing to share their personal experiences with regard to such a sensitive topic as race. The ‘intensity sampling’ method of purposeful sampling was used, as Patton recommends employing it where research requires a sample that ‘consists of information-rich cases that manifest the phenomenon of interest intensely’ (Patton 1990: 171). In looking for ‘information-rich cases’, I looked for high-performance athletes - those with at least one national medal. These participants would have the most experience of athletics and, thus, possibly the strongest feelings about the issues at hand. The use of purposive sampling is not the most representative method, however, the aim here was to make sure that there were participants from a selection of track-and-field events, as well as a mix of genders and ages (Bryman 2012). As a member of a central Dublin athletics club, I have contacts in the Irish athletics community. I utilised one of these contacts, who trains with a North Dublin high-performance group, as a gatekeeper in order to gain access to two athletics clubs. I spoke to this contact and explained my intended research; I described the aims and processes I would be using as well as the kind of participants I would like to interview. The gatekeeper informed me that he would encourage those in his own high-performance group to take part, and offered to put a message on the group’s Facebook page asking for participants. I constructed a paragraph, asking for any potential participants to contact me detailing their age and event, and the gatekeeper posted it on the page. Further, this gatekeeper told me of another high-performance athletics club in the South Dublin area that would have appropriate participants, and advised

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me to get in touch with another contact there. I followed the same procedures as with the North Dublin club, and asked a member to post on the Facebook group. Within three days, ten people had responded to the two Facebook posts. I chose to only interview six, due to time constraints. I chose the six participants based on getting the widest breadth of events, an equal gender split and a variety of ages and backgrounds - a detailed breakdown of participants can be seen in Appendix I. This demographic variation was significant in the study, as the two middle-distance runners, as well as Hannah, a four hundred metre hurdler, clearly described the choosing their events due to racial considerations; had I only chosen sprinters, or field-eventers, I may not have discovered this. Age seemed to have little effect, but the variation was not huge, this could possibly be addressed in further research. Data Collection Techniques With the theoretical framework in mind, I carried out six semi-structured interviews with the athletes. The methodology of the interview allows for a unique understanding of the performance of identity. The process of the interview allows for the interviewer and interviewee to mutually compose a situation that allows the interviewee to explain their unique subject position. The interview offers a unique method of exploring an individual’s own constructions of themselves, as they are in control of the social text they are creating; the process of creating this social text offers an insight into the participant’s own subjectivity, revealing how he or she constructs and deconstructs his or her own reality through discourse and language (Lucius-Hoene and Deppermann 2000). Whilst ethnographies encompassing field research are commonplace in this kind of research, the time-constraints of this project meant that a full ethnography of the athletics clubs concerned was not viable (Carrington 2004, Jorgenson 2002). The interviews carried out in this project followed a ‘guided conversation’ (Hammersley and Atkinson 1995) technique; in this method, the researcher has a loose set of topics and areas, rather than specific questions, which do not have to be asked in a particular order and can be adapted depending on the flow of the interview

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(Carrington 2004). Following Carrington’s (2004) example of conducting these kinds of interviews, I constructed an interview guide, which I read through before each interview, in order to ensure the appropriate areas would be covered (attached in Appendix II). My experience with journalistic interviews meant I was confident in conducting them myself. I also carried out two pilot interviews with members of my own athletics club, who were aware of the aims of my research, this allowed me to test the questions as well as reflect on my interviewing technique before carrying out the full interviews. Interviews took place in January 2012 over the course of two weeks, which was, on reflection, an insufficient period of time to carry out six interviews. Whilst there was empirically enough time to carry out the interviews, it was demanding and exhausting. Interviews lasted half-an-hour, on average, with some lasting up to forty minutes, and took place in locations chosen by the participants. Locations ranged from empty classrooms to quiet coffee shops; I noticed no difference in openness between locations. Interviews were mostly relaxed, with an informal atmosphere, which Nigel Fielding (2001) highlights as key to ensure respondents answer honestly. I started every interview with the question ‘how long have you been involved in athletics?’, which led to discussion of the participants’ levels of involvement, and ensured a relaxed interview. Some parts of the interview took a turn for the formal, where the positions of interviewer and interviewee became very obvious, but mostly the interviews flowed conversationally. However, this relaxed atmosphere had its own drawbacks - when listening back to the interviews I discovered that I had, at times, interrupted the participants when they were talking. The casual nature of the ‘guided conversation’ method had led me, on occasion, to lose sight of the fact that it was the interviewee’s views that mattered more than my own. The interviews were recorded on my mobile phone, which was placed on the table between the participant and myself. This functioned well, as a phone placed on the table is not an unusual occurrence and, thus, did not cause any discomfort for the participants. I transcribed each interview immediately after it happened. This meant the interview was fresh in my mind and any idiosyncrasies or remarkable actions could

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be noted. Data Analysis Analysis of the interviews focused on subject positions and identity composition as constructed through declarations, direct claims, reports, narratives, or stories where the participant is placed in a specific subject position within the interview (Jorgenson 2002). The analysis sought to establish some understanding of participants’ athletic identity. Since there were only six interviews, the coding process was fairly straightforward. I carefully read the transcripts several times, after which I identified the prominent themes throughout the interviews. Themes were considered salient if they were consistent through the majority (three or more) of the interviews. However, if one participant expressed a particularly interesting thought, I would note this additionally. This is described well by the example of Hannah, who was the only participant to identify Black female sprinters as masculine. I felt it important to note, as it reflects a wider discourse (Liberti 1999, Krane et al. 2004), and thus warranted further investigation. The themes identified in the interviews translated to subject positions that the participants had placed themselves or others in. For example, the most common theme was the hardworking athlete - this subject position was identified due to the repeated claims of ‘hard training’ and sacrifices for the sport, comparisons to other athletes and stories of their diligence, as well as participants positioning themselves in opposition to the perceived natural athlete position. Further than only analysing where the participants placed themselves, intersections and conflicts between the positions, as well as gender differences were considered. Ethical Considerations Using a consent form circumvented issues concerning informed consent. This form detailed the title and aims of the research and informed participants of their rights to anonymity and privacy, and a promise of confidentiality, as well as the right to

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withdraw from the research at any time or decline to answer any questions (see Appendix III). Each participant, as well as myself, signed this form before each interview. The consent form detailed the processes for assuring anonymity and confidentiality: pseudonyms were used for both each participant and their clubs throughout the research, and recordings, transcripts and informed consent forms were stored either on a password-protected computer, or filed away at my home. The use of the formal consent form saved time and allowed an assurance of fully informed consent, but also allowed me to attach a second page, a request for information about the participant’s age, athletic event and ethnicity, using the design of government ethnicity and diversity forms. This allowed the participants to self-identify ethnicity without having to ask in the interview. Since this research looked only at White athletes, I avoided encountering many of the ethical dilemmas presented to the White researcher researching ‘race’. Issues regarding race-of-interviewer effects, gaining trust from another ethnic group and conduct are common in ‘race’ research (Edwards 1990, Egharevba 2001, Gunaratnam, 2003). Further, the issue of the dominant White gaze within the field of sociology means the very nature of a White researcher researching other ‘races’ could be an Othering behaviour (Carrington 2004). There was still a requirement to carefully choose the kinds of questions asked in the interviews, due to a risk of accusing participants of racism or bigotry. Whilst trying to elicit participants’ feelings on the issue of ‘race’, gender and nation in sport, it was important to maintain a neutral reaction to answers, and not probe obviously about discriminatory opinions. This was problematic at times in the interviews. One such incident occurred when I was interviewing Jake, a middle-distance runner, I asked why he had earlier identified Nick Symmonds (a White-American athlete) as more influential than David Rudisha (Kenyan). Although ‘race’ was not overtly mentioned, Jake became worried and began to apologise for his choice. I told him that I was just wondering the reasons for his reverence of Symmonds, not accusing him of racism. However, this was a valuable lesson in choosing wording carefully in order to avoid upsetting participants.

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A prominent ethical issue in this research was the nature of soliciting, and thus reinforcing, racialised ways of thinking. The nature of this study meant this was difficult to avoid; I attempted to steer the questions in a way that did not make obvious any accusations of racism. Whilst this could have been a major ethical consideration in this study, in reality, most participants openly discussed ‘race’ of their own accord. With participants themselves suggesting ‘race’ as an issue in sport, and thus freely telling me their opinions, it seemed to not be a sensitive issue for them. However, this may not have been the case if I was researching another group. Conclusion Bearing in mind the theoretical backdrop described at the start of this chapter, the methods described here were the most straightforward tools for the study. Whilst purposive sampling and a case study design may not have formed the most generalisable research, they have allowed for an in-depth investigation of the participants’ athletic selves. Further, access was an easy task for me, as I am immersed in the area of Irish track-and-field. Given the short timeframe, interviews served the purpose well; with more time, employing more ethnographic methods, such as participant observation, in conjunction with interviews may have allowed for a more comprehensive investigation. There were few ethical problems in this research, given the nature of only investigating White athletes, however, they could present more of an issue if the research was continued in a more comparative manner.

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CHAPTER FOUR

The Athletic Self in Track-And-Field

This chapter explores the findings of the six interviews conducted. The participants were three male and three female track-and-field athletes, each with a different particular event; a detailed breakdown of participants can be found in Appendix I. The interviews lasted approximately thirty minutes each, and discussed participants’ experiences of competitive athletics in Ireland. The chapter explores the subject positions constructed by participants during the course of the interviews; the positions of hardworking athlete and the White/European athlete, as well as examining the lack of an ‘Irish athlete’ position. Further, the intersections and conflicts between these subject positions are explored, after which the intersection of gender with these discourses is investigated. After identifying themes through careful analysis of the interview data, I associated these themes to appropriate subject positions. The positions identified here were those that were shared by the majority of participants; positions expressed only by one participant were largely ignored, unless deemed particularly valuable, such as the case of Hannah’s discussion of the ‘manly’ Black female athlete. These subject positions, intersecting and conflicting, form a strong part of the athletic identity; investigating these as individual positions allows for an insight into the subjectivities of the participants’ athletic selves (Jorgenson 2002, Davies and Harré 2007). Hardworking athlete Participants, throughout the research, positioned themselves as the hardworking

athlete, in opposition to the perceived natural athlete. The hardworking athlete was described as the athlete who had to train harder, diet more extremely and have greater mental capacity than those who were, in the words of two participants, ‘born to run’, or those with a ‘God-given gift’ in athletics. Participants described themselves as

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‘obsessed’ with training, and told how they gave 'much more than anyone else' to achieve their goals. What Samantha described as the 'natural gift' was considered to be an unfair advantage that the natural athlete held over the hardworking athlete. The natural

athlete did not have to put in as much work or show as much dedication to the sport in order to reap the rewards. Ronan, a long-jumper, perceived natural talent as 'the most unfair thing in sport'. However, he used this as a positive force in order to justify his extreme training, dieting and sacrifices made for athletics.

People with talent can get away with an awful lot more than, like, I can. For example, with diet, I mean some people are just so talented, I mean you see it with Usain Bolt, having chicken nuggets before winning the Olympics, it’s just, it’s pure raw talent and training, I mean the more talent you have, the less the things, preparation and training and diet and so on, matter.

Ronan felt he lacked the ‘talent’ required to reach the heights of the World’s best long-jumpers, Carl Lewis and Mike Powell. In order to combat this feeling of inability, Ronan used the two positions to create a positive space for his own achievements, such as winning national championships. When discussing a training partner who took a silver medal at a European championship, Ronan used his position as a hardworking athlete in order to place his achievements as more of a feat, and thus justifying his labour:

When [Harry] won, I mean, when he came second in the European Under-23 Championships, my coach sent around a text, and basically the gist of the text to the rest of the group was that we should all take, we should all try to mimic [Harry]’s efforts, because they’ve been so monumental for getting this, whereas if you actually look at it, they’re by no means, no means, as great as some of mine. Like, there’s other people in the group, as well, that, that have less

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talent, who don’t get the same results. I just don’t, like, I won’t say he trains much less, or that his training sessions are much lighter than mine, but he does... he’s never in such a bad state as I am after training sessions.

Ronan felt that placing himself outside of the natural athlete position enabled him to train harder, and thus achieve impressive goals. Ronan boasted that he regularly beat athletes in national competitions that he believes have far more natural talent and natural ‘elasticity’ than him. The belief that training and mental capacity could overcome the ‘unfair’ natural talent of other athletes provided a motivation for the participants’ training. For Ronan, this animosity about other ‘natural’ athletes seemed to provide motivation and breed competitiveness, necessary attributes for a successful athlete. Others supported Ronan’s position; Jake described his inability to beat the Kenyan eight hundred metre world-record holder, David Rudisha because 'that man seems like he was put on this planet to run 1.40 [minutes] and under'. He contrasts Rudisha with, American middle-distance runners, Nick Symmonds and Andrew Wheating, who he considered to be his ‘competitors’. Jake felt that, conversely to his feelings about Rudisha, Symmonds’ achievements were well within his grasp. Jake described identifying with Symmonds because he felt he was 'not blessed with the most amount of natural talent, he just works extremely, extremely hard to make up that, kind of, deficit of talent, or that X-factor that a lot of athletes seem to have.' The potential to overcome great obstacles with training, hard work and, for Siobhan, ‘mental capacity’ was an important part of the athletic identity for these participants; the belief in the ability to beat those natural athletes justifies the intense nature of training for competitive athletics, which may otherwise seem futile. Further, the hardworking athlete position allows for celebration of successes as well earned, despite seeming meager compared to those of some natural athletes. The mental game of choosing an event

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Embracing the position of the hardworking White athlete, participants (with the exception of Sean, who competes in the one hundred metres) indicated that they chose their particular event based on how skill based and intellectual they consider the event to be. Despite belief in the potential of hard work and training, participants suggested that these factors, as well as natural ability, were more pertinent in some events than others. Participants highlighted the importance of being ‘smart’ or ‘thinking’ when choosing which event to compete in. Sean, a one hundred metre sprinter, joked that 'if I were smart, I wouldn’t have chosen [the one hundred metres]', and Jake justified his choice with numerous statements referring to the ‘work’ required in the eight hundred metres. Hannah further describes the importance of picking an event that requires ‘training', ‘skill’ and ‘technique’:

When I was little, I just wanted to be a one-hundred metre sprinter and a one-hundred metre hurdler, but through the years of watching athletics and training and stuff like that, I’ve totally given up on that and aimed to move to four-hundreds and four-hundred metre hurdles because it’s more to do with the work. Y’know, I think someone like me could train amazingly well, but I still wouldn’t beat those Black sprinters. In four hundreds, you can literally just train harder and there’s a lot more skill and technique required, rather than just brute strength, especially with hurdles.

Samantha also articulated a requirement for natural talent in some events; she described taking up the heptathlon due to a lack of the natural talent required for her initial events - hurdles and triple jump. When probed as to what dictates success at individual track-and-field events, Samantha responded by discussing Usain Bolt’s ‘natural gift’:

In sprints, I do believe that you need a natural gift; like, I don’t think Usain Bolt has the best start, but he has some sort of a gift. And that’s what gets him over that line faster than anybody else, y’know, you do have to have something natural.

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However, Samantha described the combined-events as 'more of an even playing field', and attributed this to the high level of skill and training required. She highlights the lack of a requirement to be 'top at any particular event', which she reasons may be the reason that 'there’s no one country that stands out in multis'. Samantha further rationalises European success in the heptathlon by highlighting the importance of field events, which are 'pure skill and technique, not just physical strength'. Siobhan and Jake both discussed the ability to bring a ‘unique skillset’ to the eight hundred metres. Jake refers to the event as 'a thinking man’s game' and tells that 'you can actually just put a lot of work in and get better', as opposed to sprinting events, in which, he claims, 'there’s only so much training you can do to get that foot speed'. The hardworking athlete and natural athlete positions embrace the self-perceived amount of training, level of dedication and ‘mental capacity’ of each athlete. The hardworking athlete position allows for a ‘brains versus brawn’ (Jackson 1989) distinction and, thus, for the success of competitors to be belittled as a ‘natural gift’. This disparaging view of the natural athlete provides a positive space for the hardworking athlete, in which they can feel confident in, and assured by their own achievements. White athlete The natural athlete position was generally identified by participants as being synonymous with the most successful Black athletes, such as Usain Bolt or David Rudisha. Thus, the hardworking athlete position was often characterised as part of the position of the White athlete. Participants, invariably, attributed the success of White or European athletes to hard-work, dedication, training and mental aptitude. This was in polar opposition to the Black athlete, who was continuously described as naturally able or having, in Jake’s words, a 'God-given gift'. The Othering of the Black athlete and the mental block

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The natural-Black athlete was habitually described as the Other for the participants; for Hannah, Usain Bolt, Maurice Greene and Dwain Chambers were 'huge Black sprinters' who were the opposite to Christophe Lemaitre’s 'skinny whippet' physique. Participants’ regularly referenced the apparent physical differences between Black and White athletes, such as oxygen carrying capacity or the differences in muscle placement and constitution. These visual and physical markers place the successful Black athlete in opposition to the White athlete. Participants described the lack of identification with Black athletes as causing a psychological barrier, or 'mental block'. As such, participants displayed some acceptance of the arguments regarding both the Black natural ability and cultural arguments seen in chapter two. Whilst participants stated a general acceptance of being ‘genetically built for sprinting’, there were also attempts to justify Black overrepresentation in track-and-field with cultural or ‘survival of the fastest’ arguments (Carrington 2002, Johnson 2012). Five participants suggested ‘race’ as a factor in their sporting success, unsolicited. This places ‘race’ as hugely important to them as track-and-field athletes. This builds significantly on the findings of the previous literature on ‘race’ as an important consideration for White athletes; this finding confirms ‘race’ as a lived reality for these athletes, as opposed to only when artificially suggested, as in other studies (Azzarito and Harrison 2008). This bred a level of self-denigration for the participants, as they were White, and therefore did not consider themselves to have any of this ‘natural talent’. All six participants described some form of psychological barrier with regard to competing against Black athletes. When asked to describe the limits placed on them as athletes, participants repeatedly highlighted ‘race’ as curbing their ability to succeed. Sean, a nineteen year-old sprinter, directly attributed his idol, Usain Bolt’s, success to his Blackness; when asked why he felt unable to reach Bolt’s levels of success, Sean simply responded: 'He’s Black, I’m White, there’s a strong reason there.' Hannah also considered herself to be unable to achieve as much as Black sprinters; she felt incapable of reaching the highest level of success in the sprinting events because her body was too different:

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Especially in sprints, race certainly has to come into it a lot. I mean, in the women’s one-hundred-metre final, there’ll be eight Black women, built like men, like muscly tanks. And no matter how much, y’know, a Caucasian woman with particular genetics or a predisposition to muscle tone and stuff like that... there’s only so far she can get when she’s racing, y’know, athletes who are just genetically built for sprinting.

Others, such as eight-hundred-metre runner, Siobhan, were not as quick to name ethnicity as a direct hindrance to success. However, it was still firmly imbued as a psychological barrier:

This might sound bad, but say if you’re racing someone, and they happen to be, like, African. 'Oh they’re gonna beat me, they’re African' - no they’re not, y’know what I mean? Like, they’re not... like obviously, there’s like at the back of your mind, you just think; 'Yeah, more red blood cells, they have better oxygen carrying capacity.' But y’know, at the end of the day it’s all in your head.

Ronan was least inclined to give any ground to a genetic difference between Black and White athletes. However, he acknowledged there was a mental block, as the physical Othering of Black athletes means that White athletes cannot identify themselves, or see themselves in major championship finals. When asked what makes a successful athlete, Ronan responded:

I think it’s race that matters, or ethnicity. Um, I think for, say, a sprinter of West-African descent in Ireland, I think that they have this, they’re not necessarily more able, but they have this advantage over other Irish people in that they haven’t got this mental block, where they see that there are ten men in the Olympic final who are all of West-African descent. So it’s like; 'Oh, why can’t I be' -

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y’know, there’s no reason they can’t be. Whereas, I just can’t see myself there.

Whilst Ronan does not acknowledge a physical difference, he uses the fact of Blackness to justify not being able to see himself in the Black athletes’ position. The physical symbol of the Black athletic body has a strong effect on the White athlete’s perception of their own ability. This not only affects the perception of self for the White athlete, participants also articulated an effect on performance and training. This was particularly evident in participants’ discussion of White success in athletics, where Sean describes how, once a certain barrier is broken by an athlete, it becomes psychologically easier for the next athletes to achieve. The anomalous White athlete as a figure of hope The use of the anomalous White athlete in opposition to the Black athlete was a consistent theme throughout the interviews. Admiration for those who achieved success through hard work was habitually attributed to White athletes; five participants named White athletes when asked who they admire or revere. This approval was attributed to the hard work, training or mental capacity of the athlete. However, when discussing Black athletes, talent was invariably used to justify success, with little mention of training. This supports the findings and theories of the previous literature, attributing ‘brains’ to White, and ‘brawn’ to Black athletes (Jackson 1989, Sailes 1993, Denham et al. 2002). The White athlete’s success through hard work provided a symbol of hope for the participants who believed they lacked the natural gift often required to become a successful athlete. Hannah, a sprinter, illustrated this reverence for the exceptional White athlete well, with her description of Sally Gunnell, the White-British hurdler:

She was just a hard, hard, just such a hard worker, and it was so unexpected that she was gonna win because, y’know, the Russians at the time were all on drugs, the Germans were all on drugs. The

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American and Caribbean dominance in the sprints and stuff like that, and she just came out - just a normal girl from England.

The idea of the natural Black athlete here is illustrated well; whilst an external force justifies the White athletes’ success (they 'were all on drugs'), the Black Caribbean and American athletes require no such justification. For Hannah, the 'normal girl from England' was in opposition to the 'huge Black sprinters' who tend to dominate the track events; Hannah positions the anomalous White athlete as a figure of hope. Hannah described Gunnell’s 'surprise' win in the 1992 Olympic Games as 'encouraging' and 'giving hope' to athletes like her. After her discussion of Gunnell, Hannah joked: 'Thank God there are athletes like her'. Three other participants highlighted Christophe Lemaitre’s breaking of the ten-second-barrier in the one hundred metres as a significant moment for them as athletes. Having a White body in major finals, such as the Olympics and World Championships, allows for a removal of the 'mental block' described by Ronan; every finalist is no longer considered the Other. For Sean, this sense of kinship with Lemaitre changed the boundaries of what was possible:

It’s obvious, I mean, if you look at Christophe Lemaitre - he was the first Frenchman to break ten seconds, he was the first White man as well, but very soon after he broke ten-seconds, you had a second Frenchman breaking ten seconds, so I think that, just being able to see yourself there, it definitely has to have an effect.

All participants painted the successful White athlete as an important figure for them as athletes. The Othering of thriving Black athletes within track-and-field creates a space where the White athletes feel unable to realise the highest achievements. The anomalous White athlete, such as Christophe Lemaitre, appearing in major finals allows for the athletes to perceive themselves as able, however unlikely. This provided participants with a justification for the difficult levels of training and dieting, as well as the sacrifices made for the sport.

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Being an Irish athlete Sport in Ireland has regularly been used as a space for cultural resistance and nationalism (Diffley 1973, Maguire and Tuck 1998). However, the Irish participants revealed very little sense of an Irish athletic identity, placing far more importance on a European or White identity. Whilst, due to the literature on the role of nation in Irish sports, there was expected to be a strong ‘Irish athlete’ position, this appeared to be nearly nonexistent for these participants (Cronin 1999, Tuck 2003). Participants felt that, other than a lack of funding and infrastructure in Ireland, there was no difference between an Irish athlete and any other European athlete. Hannah stated that:

It’s not the athletes at all. I mean, genetically, we are the exact same as the Brits, and the Brits clean up. Like, they’re always at the top. So there’s absolutely no reason for us to be so low down the table.

Participants rejected the 'small nation, small population' arguments for Ireland’s lack of international achievement, acknowledging the vast success of small nations, such as Jamaica and Kenya, in track-and-field. Although acknowledging some success in Europe, the Europe/Americas, Black/White divides were deemed far more significant in explaining Ireland’s lack of major medals in athletics. Whilst five participants identified White athletes as those they idolise, only Siobhan named an Irish athlete, the rest named British or other Europeans as influential. There was a lack of camaraderie with regard to what it means to be an Irish athlete; participants discussed the tendency of flourishing athletes to move away from Ireland, where they train alongside athletes of other nationalities. Sean noticed this trend, and further interpreted leaving Ireland as a measure of success in athletics:

Any decent athlete who gets really good, they always leave. Like, Paul Hession went to Scotland, David Gillick went to America,

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Derval O’Rourke went to Wales. Y’know, if you want to make it you have to leave. It’s a sad reality. I want to leave!

Participants portrayed little sense of pride in representing Ireland in track-and-field, it was seen as an individual achievement. Conversely, Jake, an American athlete living and training in Ireland, portrayed a strong sense national identity. Jake’s discussion of his athletic role models invariably found him comparing himself to other White-American athletes and an opportunity to represent the USA internationally was his primary goal. Jake described a sense of brotherhood and camaraderie between him and his American peers when training and racing, which he felt was missing in Irish athletics. Jake described track-and-field in the USA as a ‘regiment’, with a particular set of consistent customs. Jake repeatedly spoke of 'coming up' with other middle-distance athletes, which led to a sense of kinship between all the athletes competing in American athletics. There was no such discussion of togetherness from the Irish athletes, and as such, very little sense of an Irish athletic identity in track-and-field. When discussing the differences between being an athlete in Ireland compared with other countries, such as the UK or USA, participants often highlighted the focus of resources on the GAA in Ireland. There was a sense of bitterness with regard to the lack of funding or facilities for track-and-field athletes in Ireland. Samantha’s words exemplify this well:

We don’t get good enough grants, we don’t get good enough money put into coaching, I mean nearly all the coaches in Ireland work for free! We don’t have the facilities, we don’t have the scholarship schemes, and it’s just completely neglected as a sport! See, because the UK don’t have stuff like the GAA, hurling, football and stuff. That’s where all the money’s being bled dry here.

Whilst the literature firmly places sports such as the Gaelic games, rugby and soccer as a significant space for nationalism in Ireland, track-and-field, for these participants, provides no motivation for a sense of Irish nationhood.

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Gender as intersecting with ‘race’ and nation None of the Irish participants identified strongly with an Irish athletic identity, however, the three female participants displayed more awareness of their Irishness. Whilst none of the men mentioned the position of the Irish athlete without encouragement, the three women referred to the figure throughout the interviews. Siobhan named Sonia O’Sullivan as the reason she started athletics, and considered her a hero. Whilst the other two female participants named British role models, Hannah often made reference to the most successful Irish athletes, and Samantha suffixed her choice of athlete with an allegiance to Irish athletes:

I mean, obviously in Ireland, I do think we have great athletes in Ireland, too. I do, I do love Fionnuala Britton, and I do like Derval [O’Rourke]. Um, and I like marathons, I think in Ireland we’re performing better there. With, y’know, Maria McCambridge, phenomenal athlete. We’ve got, um, what’s her name? Oh, Linda Byrne, and, um, Ava Hutchinson - brilliant marathoner.

Samantha felt the need to mention the success of the female Irish athletes, displaying a sense of nation. This highlights clearly the strong gender difference that appeared in this research with regard to the position of the Irish athlete; female Irish athletes, such as Derval O’Rourke and Fionnuala Britton, were mentioned throughout the interviews, they were prominent figures for the female participants. Further, Hannah’s analysis that the Irish are 'genetically [exactly] the same as the Brits' may reflect her feeling that it is possible for an Irish woman to achieve great success. The female athletes also displayed more belief in the ability of the White athlete to overcome the race boundaries identified in this research. Whilst Hannah identified Black sprinters as masculine, ‘muscly tanks’, and dismissed Eastern European success in the sprints as because they 'were all on drugs', Siobhan dismissed these ideas. When discussing the male sprinting events, Lemaitre was consistently used as the one

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symbol of hope, however, when discussing female events, the focus was more spread. Siobhan highlighted that, in the five thousand metre final at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, 'there was Kenyans in the race, there were Ethiopians in the race. But it was between [O’Sullivan] and Szabo, and Szabo’s Romanian like, and they just destroyed the field! So, y’know, race doesn’t have to matter.' Siobhan uses this race, as Hannah uses Sally Gunnell’s victory, to create hope. The realities constructed by the female participants included stronger emblems of hope than the male participants’; the female participants dismissed the idea of the successful White athlete as a total ‘exception’ or anomaly, and rather constructed the successful female White athlete as unlikely or rare. Since there were only three female participants, Hannah’s comments regarding Black female sprinters warrant further acknowledgement. Hannah’s perception of female one-hundred metre runners as ‘Black women, built like men, like, muscly tanks’ overtly echoes the historical discourse positioning Black female athletes as masculine (Liberti 1999). Hannah described her, White, training partner as ‘an elegant, flowing runner’, using adjectives that evoke a feminine image. This was a femininity that she denied with her description of Black female sprinters, who were, rather, ‘butch’, ‘stocky’ and ‘built’. Hannah’s perception of the masculine Black female athlete portrays a deeply embedded discourse of racism and gender stereotypes (Farringdon et al. 2012). This description of Black female bodies as masculine, in opposition to describing White bodies as ‘normal’, places the idea of a muscular Black physique as abnormal. This Othering of the Black body echoes a large sum of post-colonial literature, which highlights corporeal denigration as reinforcing White racial domination (Hall 1997b, Fanon 2008). Conclusion The four positions explored here are inherently overlapping and intersecting. The hardworking athlete position was commonly attributed to white athletes, and there was little understanding of the Irish athlete without acknowledging this as fundamentally White and European. Participants openly communicated a feeling of

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inferiority to the ‘naturally gifted’ Black athlete, and the lack of a sense of nation in Irish athletics was clear. Gender differences were clearly notable, with some reference to the ‘masculinity’ of Black female athletes, and the identification of larger sense of hope for female Irish athletes. There was little attempt to defend or disguise the racial prejudices that exist within athletic identities; participants showed little restraint in their responses to the questions, freely discussing race, nation and gender differences in athletics. The positions explored here reveal a strong tendency for these athletes to rely on a ‘Black brawn versus White brains’ (Jackson 1989) line of thought and perpetuate the ‘colonial fantasies’ (Fanon 2008, Carrington 2002) that exist within sport. This research provides confirmation of the place for sport as an apposite arena in which to discuss the issues of ‘race’, gender and nation as axes of oppression (Dworkin and Messner 2002, Carrington 2002, Lawrence 2005). A particularly interesting finding of this project is that it offers a ‘view from the other side’ (Harrison et al. 2004). I am reluctant to label the self-denigration of the White athletes as negative, as it runs a risk of devaluing the positive cultural resistance that exists for minorities in sport (Carrington 1998, 2008). However, an understanding of the White experience in sport as revolving around these racialised stereotypes is significant and certainly noteworthy.

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CHAPTER FIVE

Conclusions Summary This research addressed the issues of ‘race’, gender and nation and the roles they play in the construction of athletic identities. Through interviewing six high-performance track-and-field athletes, this research identified subject positions relating to participants’ specific athletic identities. The participants freely and openly discussed feelings of inferiority with regard to racialised stereotypes in track-and-field. Participants displayed an ingrained belief in the myth of Black athletic superiority, while trying to balance their justifications of Black dominance in certain events with cultural factors. The idea of nation ended up with a larger role in the study than initially proposed, due to reviewing the literature in chapter two, as well as an obvious lack of an Irish identity in the data. Although the issue of nation was not directly addressed in the research questions, they served as only a loose guide for this study, which was more focused on an understanding of the identities presented by the participants. To that extent, the study answered the research questions. Answering the research questions 1. How do Irish track-and-field athletes take-up/resist racial stereotypes within sport? It was clear that racial sporting stereotypes significantly affected the participants in this study. For the participants, the figure of the natural Black athlete was a core part of the construction of their athletic selves. All participants named ‘race’, either directly or indirectly, as a hindrance to their success. Whilst all participants were successful athletes in Ireland, none had managed to make it to a major championship (IAAF World Championships or the Olympics). They made sense of this by Othering the most successful athletes, attributing their differences to racial characteristics.

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Participants described their personal experiences as athletes as somewhat shaped by racial stereotyping. By positioning themselves in opposition to the natural Black athlete, participants described an increased pressure to train, diet and sacrifice more than other athletes. Further, some participants described their achievements as meaning more, due to their hardworking White athlete position. Goals were primarily focused on European championships, as this was as far as the Irish athletes felt was possible. 2. How are these sports experiences shaped differently for men and women? With regard to the role of gender in this study, there were significant differences between male and female participants. There was more of a sense of Irishness in the female participants, who identified a range of highly respected female Irish athletes, in contrast to the male participants who described no Irish idols. The female participants often used the figure of the Irish or European athlete when describing potential success, which was in contrast to the male participants more common use of the White athlete. One participant’s comments regarding masculine Black female sprinters are also of significance; attributing masculine features to the Black woman is part of the Othering of the Black body. Associating the Black sporting body with masculinity evokes the discourse of the Black savage. With regard to Black women, this intersectional Othering causes an extreme oppression, with ‘Blackness’ calling her womanhood into question. For the female participants in this study, whilst the effects of the successful Black athlete are lessened with regard to perceptions of their own potential, comments regarding the Black sporting body are more powerful. Limitations & Future Research The benefits of using interviews in identity research were outlined in chapter three. Interviews allow the interviewer and interviewee to mutually construct a situation that allows a unique insight into the participants’ subjectivity and identity. However, there

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are limitations to only using interviews in cultural studies such as this project. There are issues concerning the subjectivities presented in the interview; this is an artificial construct and the subject positions presented here may be particular to the context. The triangulation of these interviews with other methods, such as participant observation, in the hope of developing a full ethnography may give a fuller description of participants’ athletic identities. Ethnographies have ‘been central to the development of cultural studies as a critical field of study’; they have been the key method in seminal cultural texts such as Paul Willis’ Learning to Labour and Loïc Wacquant’s Body and Soul. (Carrington 2004: 83). Using multiple sources of evidence would offer a deeper understanding of the context of these case studies. Carrington’s (2004) research utilised an ethnographic approach, which allowed him to explore the subjective identities of the members of the cricket club he was studying. Ethnography further allows for a more reflexive approach to research, as the researcher develops a more personal understanding. In this particular context I would not have been able to be fully immersed in the group I was studying, as I am not a high-performance athlete. There is potential however, for an ethnography of the clubs in general. This itself presents an issue, as there may be limited use in a full ethnography of a White club, with no comparison to any other groups’ experiences. A limitation of this research is highlighted here, as, although this study provides a ‘view from the other side’, it fails to offer an adequate comparison (Harrison et al. 2004). Research focusing, as this study does, on the self-denigrating issues of White groups, runs the risk of devaluing the positive cultural resistance recognised for Black groups in sport. The previous research on nationalism in other sports in Ireland displayed a significant level of positive national spirit, which was not seen in this research on track-and-field athletes. Some comparison between these sports may be useful, as the construction of athletic identity between the two seems to be different and conflicting. Further, the problem still stands that much of the other research in the area has ignored all but the Black and White ‘races’, as well as the roles of sexuality and sexual identity. These intersections may further deepen the understanding of oppression in sport. The small

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sample in this study, along with sampling and research design choices mean it lacks generalisability. However, the insights into the pertinence of racialised stereotypes in track-and-field gleaned here may overcome such issues; the depth of understanding that this kind of research allows renders the findings meaningful. This research has begun to look at White athletic identities for the first time outside of the UK or USA; the implications for further research are plentiful.

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APPENDIX I

Table of Participants

Name Gender Ethnicity Age Event Standard

Ronan Male White-Irish 21 Long Jump International

Jake Male White-American

24 800m International

Sean Male White-Irish 19 100m High Performance

Hannah Female White-Irish 25 400m Hurdles High Performance

Siobhan Female White-Irish 19 800m International

Samantha Female White-British 23 Combined Events

High Performance

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APPENDIX II

Interview Guide

These questions all pertain to your experience of being an athlete, both personally and how you feel about athletics in general. Since I am interested in your feelings about athletics, there are no wrong answers. If you do not want to answer a particular question, we can move on to the next one. How long have you been involved in athletics? Which events do you take part in? And why did you choose these particular events? What prompted you to get involved? What do you like/dislike about being involved in athletics? How serious was your involvement in sport when you were younger? And now? Can you name some athletes that you respect/aspire to be like? → Why? What do you think makes these athletes so successful? Do you feel that this kind of achievement is within/out of your grasp? → How/Why? What factors do you feel contribute to the making of a successful athlete? → Why? Are there different kinds of athletes? What kinds of different expectations are there of different athletes in your training group? What is unique about being an athlete in Ireland? Are there any advantages/disadvantages of being involved in athletics in Ireland as opposed to anywhere else? How do you think it would be different if you trained for/competed in your event in a different country? E.g. The UK, or the USA.

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APPENDIX III

Consent Form I am invited to participate in this research project, which is being carried out by Atalanta Copeman-Papas. My participation is voluntary. Even if I agree to participate now, I can withdraw at any time without any consequences of any kind. The study is designed to investigate the construction of self/identity in track-and-field athletes. If I agree to participate, this will involve me taking part in one individual interview, which will last no longer than forty-five minutes. If any topic is breached that I am not comfortable with, I understand that I am free to withdraw/decline to answer. Any information or data that is obtained from me during this research, which can be identified with me will be treated confidentially. This will be done by anonymously naming the transcripts of this interview, and the maintenance of complete anonymity throughout the research process. Data from this research project may be published in future. The original recording, transcripts and forms were stored either on a password-protected computer, or confidentially filed away. If I have any questions about this research I can ask Atalanta Copeman-Papas. I understand [print name] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ what is involved in this research and I agree to participate in the study. ----------------------------------------- ---------------- Signature of participant Date I, _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ believe the participant is giving informed consent to participate in this study. ------------------------------------------ ---------------------- Signature of researcher Date    

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AGE

DATE OF BIRTH

MALE ☐

FEMALE ☐

WHAT IS YOUR ETHNIC GROUP? Choose one section from (a) to (e) and tick the appropriate box to indicate your cultural background.

(a) WHITE

☐ British ☐ Irish ☐ Any other White background Please write in below

…………………………

(a) BLACK OR BLACK IRISH

☐ Caribbean ☐ African ☐ Any other Black background Please write in below

…………………………

(a) ASIAN OR ASIAN IRISH

☐ Indian ☐ Pakistani ☐ Bangladeshi ☐ Any other Asian background Please write in below

…………………………

(a) MIXED

☐ White and Black Caribbean ☐ White and Black African ☐ White and Asian ☐ Any other Mixed background Please write in below

…………………………

(a) CHINESE OR OTHER ETHNIC GROUP

☐ Chinese ☐ Any other background Please write in below

…………………………

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