Abstract
The current study explored female college athletes' experiences of specific others' (i.e., coaches, trainers, teammates, and parents) communication about their female sporting bodies and how they make sense of their bodies in relation to this communication. How they believed specific others in the sport environment should communicate with them about their bodies was also examined. Eight female National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I college athletes from four different sports were recruited using purposive sampling methods. Semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted, and the five-step process of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (Smith, 2004) as outlined by Groenewald (2004) was used. Participants reported experiences of communication from others about their bodies as both "positive" and "negative." Individualized athlete-centered training, body change recognition, and relationship development were viewed as positive means of communicating about sporting bodies, whereas comparing athletes' bodies, critical comments, and threatening sport participation were perceived as negative. These athletes experienced the sport environment as influencing their perceptions of their sporting bodies in other ways, such as maintaining a healthy "fit" body. Further, the participants described perceived conflicts between sporting body ideals and dominant social ideals of feminine bodies. Practical implications of these results will be discussed.
