Socialisations temporelles dans le sport de haut niveau

This article is based on a qualitative survey (interviews) conducted among elite athletes of the French National Sports Institute (INSEP). Their pace of life is composed of various temporalities: sports (training and competing), studying, working, recovering, leisure time, and so on. It therefore appears that objective time (meaning the organization of their timetables) does not always correspond to subjective time (how they experience it). We think elite athletes are generally capable of handling a very busy schedule (which they usually find desirable). But we also become aware of the particularities of different profiles of athletes which lead us to identify sociological factors (both related and unrelated to sports) in order to comprehend how their subjective time is socially constructed. We first present the objective organization of the timetables at INSEP and then focus on various elements which may improve how an objectively very busy timetable is actually experienced. This allows us to discuss whether elite athletes’ preparation time is considered working time or free time. Moreover, their pace of life is generated at the intersection of an institutional, collective and coercitive temporality, on the one hand, of individual and self-controlled time, on the other hand