‘Carefree enjoyment - can you tick that box?': A story of thriving following experiences of abusive coaching in gymnastics

Within this paper, we aim to utilise a creative analytical practice to embody the experience of thriving and show the ways in which the coach-athlete relationship may influence an athlete’s ability to thrive. By using an evocative autoethnographic approach, we hope to connect the reader to the thoughts, emotions, and feelings of a gymnast. To achieve this, I, the first author, used three main strategies to build the story presented in this study: use of memory, memory writing, and emotional recall. I adopted the role of ‘storyteller’, and the story was constructed through an evocative autoethnography with the aim to show emotional experiences that encourage empathy, social awareness, and reflection within the reader. Four memory fragments depict my own gymnastics experience presented in relation to key moments of my performance and well-being. The story chronicles how the coach-athlete relationship affected my personal experiences of thriving, including initial interactions, navigating feelings of anxiety and panic at competitions, and finishing my university sporting experience. We’d like to invite you, the reader, to live the first author’s story and immerse yourself in her experience of how the coach-athlete relationship impacted her experiences of thriving as a gymnast.