Becoming a mother-athlete : female athletes' transition to motherhood in Slovenia

Tekavc, Janja (author), Wylleman, Paul (author), Cecić Erpič, Saša (author)

Perceptions of incompatibility of sport and motherhood still exist within both sport and family Slovene cultures. For many female athletes starting a family means an end of their athletic careers. However, some women decide to pursue their athletic life after they become mothers. While recent media interest in mother-athletes has increased significantly, scientific research focusing on this topic is still scarce. The purpose of this study was to explore the transition of Slovene female athletes into motherhood and their experiences of combining motherhood with competitive sport. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight female elite athletes, who became mothers during their elite level competitive career. The results of the study revealed that mother-athletes perceived this transition as a long-term process in which motherhood and elite sport had a reciprocal effect on each other. Three transition phases characterized by changes in the participants’ holistic development were identified: (1) pre-pregnancy and pregnancy, (2) returning to competitive sport, and (3) living the life of a mother-athlete.

• Language: English
• Keywords: sport, women, children, parenthood, mother, holistic athletic career model, athlets
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FŠ - Faculty of Sport
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2020
• Number of pages: Str. 734–750
• Numbering: Vol. 23, no. 4
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-147276
• UDC: 796.01
• ISSN on article: 1743-0445
• DOI: 10.1080/17430437.2020.1720200
• COBISS.SI-ID: 5665457
• Publication date in RUL: 28.06.2023

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Sport in society : cultures, commerce, media, politics
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• ISSN: 1743-0445
• COBISS.SI-ID: 522138137

Licences

• License: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
• Description: The most restrictive Creative Commons license. This only allows people to download and share the work for no commercial gain and for no other purposes.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: šport, ženske, otroci, starši, matere, športniki, športna kariera