نگه داشتن سرعت: هویت مادر در مقابل هواداران در میان دونده های دور افتاده نخبه

This paper explores the ways elite female athletes negotiate the competing identities of motherhood and athlete as they return to high-level training and international competition after giving birth. This paper draws on findings from 14 semi-structured interviews with world class runners from Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Australia. We identified three main discourses: first, participants reported that support from their spouses, families, and sponsors allowed them to make meaningful decisions about elite sport and motherhood; second, elite female athletes reported feelings of guilt upon their return to training, which in turn, gave rise to a binary where athletes felt that motherhood necessitated selflessness and running required selfishness; finally, some participants reported that running/competition enhanced their mothering, transforming the ethic of care that informed their guilt into a site of empowerment.