Striving for Excellence: an Autoethnography of Taking Risk, Managing Pain and Dealing with Injury in Elite Middle-Distance Running

Participation in some forms of elite sport is associated with economic and social mobility. In attempting to maximise an elite sporting career, young athletes commit firmly to their goals, often taking risks to reach the highest levels of elite sport. In adding to the existing literature on risk, pain and injury in sport, this article contributes a methodologically novel account of my experiences as an elite middle-distance runner. The paper offers a highly individualised insight into why, how and when I took risks, as well as how I managed pain and injury. In reflecting sociologically on my experiences, I comment on how narratives of sporting social mobility are made real through the temporally contextualised taking of risks. These risk-taking processes rely on a Janus-faced approach to risk; one in which I, as an elite athlete looked back nostalgically at previous transcendental experiences and aimed to reproduce such moments in the future. My reflections detail the socio-cultural context of a sport which offers commercial perks, geographical mobility and unique sporting experiences. The article also argues that the risk-reward process can be viewed as a cruel optimism; one which further damages the body in the pursuit of individual athletic aspirations