Elite athletes experiences with risk related to cardiac screening

TY - ABST

T1 - Elite athletes experiences with risk related to cardiac screening

AU - Christensen, Jonas Schmidt

AU - Thing, Lone Friis

PY - 2016/5/4

Y1 - 2016/5/4

N2 - Elite Athletes experiences with risks related to Cardiac Screening Jonas Schmidt Christensen1, Lone Friis Thing1 1University of Copenhagen - Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports (NEXS), Cardiac screening of elite athletes are recommended by both the American Heart Association & the European Society of Cardiology as well as major sports federations such as the International Olympic Committee, however, these recommendations seem to be based on an inadequate empirical foundation, just as the costs of performing cardiac screening on a larger scale seem out of proportion. Additionally, the field is dominated by studies with a clinical medical focus and studies of athlete’s perspectives on cardiac screening are consequently an absence. By using an interpretive sociological perspective (Denzin 2001) and qualitative research done with elite athletes of both gender this paper seeks to explore how elite athletes experience risks associated with cardiac screening. To make possible an analysis of how elite athletes come to an understanding of and position themselves in relation to the risk discourse (Lupton 2013) they are met by, the focus is on Foucault’s technologies of the self and a subjectivity perspective on risk (Foucault 1988). For most elite athletes participation in cardiac screening is done out of a wish to obtain an acquittal from risks. Symptomatic of the risk society cardiac screening can from an athlete perspective at the same time be seen as an attempt to gain control over the uncontrollable. The results show that elite athletes seem to respond to cardiac screening as an expression of an ideology in which they are already embedded. However, whether cardiac screening is mandatory or not plays an important role in how elite athletes experience risk. The research shows how risks associated with cardiac screening can contribute in making the finiteness of life more present, and thereby be part of a self-technological process aiming to live more in the moment. Key Words risk; cardiac screening; elite athletes;

AB - Elite Athletes experiences with risks related to Cardiac Screening Jonas Schmidt Christensen1, Lone Friis Thing1 1University of Copenhagen - Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports (NEXS), Cardiac screening of elite athletes are recommended by both the American Heart Association & the European Society of Cardiology as well as major sports federations such as the International Olympic Committee, however, these recommendations seem to be based on an inadequate empirical foundation, just as the costs of performing cardiac screening on a larger scale seem out of proportion. Additionally, the field is dominated by studies with a clinical medical focus and studies of athlete’s perspectives on cardiac screening are consequently an absence. By using an interpretive sociological perspective (Denzin 2001) and qualitative research done with elite athletes of both gender this paper seeks to explore how elite athletes experience risks associated with cardiac screening. To make possible an analysis of how elite athletes come to an understanding of and position themselves in relation to the risk discourse (Lupton 2013) they are met by, the focus is on Foucault’s technologies of the self and a subjectivity perspective on risk (Foucault 1988). For most elite athletes participation in cardiac screening is done out of a wish to obtain an acquittal from risks. Symptomatic of the risk society cardiac screening can from an athlete perspective at the same time be seen as an attempt to gain control over the uncontrollable. The results show that elite athletes seem to respond to cardiac screening as an expression of an ideology in which they are already embedded. However, whether cardiac screening is mandatory or not plays an important role in how elite athletes experience risk. The research shows how risks associated with cardiac screening can contribute in making the finiteness of life more present, and thereby be part of a self-technological process aiming to live more in the moment. Key Words risk; cardiac screening; elite athletes;

M3 - Konferenceabstrakt til konference

T2 - Sport in the City. Mobility, Urbanity and Social Change

Y2 - 4 May 2016 through 7 May 2016

ER -