What Does 'Safe Sport' Mean for Forced Migrant Athletes? Stories and Lessons from Forced Migrant Athletes Resettled in Canada

The aim with this project is to develop a broader understanding of factors that constitute safe sport for international-level forced migrant athletes. The project is guided by two objectives: 1) Provide international-level forced migrant athletes with an opportunity to recount the factors that helped them feel safe and thrive while training to compete at the international level and 2) Develop adaptable evidence-based interventions for high-performance coaches, sport organizations, and sports psychology researchers that can be used to develop safe and healthy sport environments where athletes can emotionally, psychologically, and physically prosper. A strength-based approach will be used to understand the factors that contributed to their safety and thriving in their sport environments. Data will be collected through arts-based conversational interviews, in which participants will draw about their stories of safe sport factors relating to their sports contexts. Audio data will be transcribed and analysed through a reflexive thematic analysis to highlight the researchers' subjective understandings, assumptions, and privileges while engaging with the data. Participants will be invited to continue participation throughout the research project to help construct deeper understandings of the data. Themes will be developed into polyphonic vignettes, a form of creative non-fiction storytelling where composite characters are used to showcase the multiple ways in which safe sport factors can be represented by the participants. These vignettes will be used to create adaptable interventions leading to inclusive safe sport environments.