Can Physical Education Motivate to Continue with Elite Sports? : A self determination perspective on track and field girls retrospective experience of physical education

In Sweden 90% of all children have some time during their childhood come in contact with sports associations, but less than half of them are left in the sport environment when they turn 20. This makes less elite athletes to come out of the country of Sweden. Sport of the highest level is contagious when we in Sweden have a lot of good athletes, it will make more people want to move. Most children start the process of quitting a sport between the ages of 13 to 15 years. The purpose of this paper is to find out how girl students and former girl students of Riksidrottsgymnasiet experienced the effect of physical education (PE) on their motivation to carry on their elite carrier. This will be looked at through Self Determination Theory’s basic psychological needs which are competence, relatedness and autonomy. The result show that girls that carry on with their elite carrier in track and field felt both competence and relatedness during PE. But the feeling of autonomy in track and field that PE contributed with was almost nonexistent. This shows that PE can influence girls to carry on their elite carrier in track and field, but not without help from outside. A sports profile during the age of 13 to 15 years could be helpful to get more students to carry on with their elite carrier, which leads to that Sweden can increase the number of elite athletes