World Championships and the Olympic Games are celebrated highlights in elite sport. Participating in this type of competition is considered a sign of outstanding performance and both Olympic and World champions regularly gain iconic status in their respective sports. Thus, even when financial benefit is limited, participating in World Championships or Olympic Games constitutes the ultimate dream for most elite athletes. Given this, their cyclical staging has a profound impact on athletes’ careers. Retrospective research on elite athletes’ career development describes that athletes are ready to take high bodily risks (e.g. training despite pain; reducing weight) in order to participate in major international competitions. However, little is to date known on how aspiring participants come to decide for oragainst bodily risk taking during the pre-competition phase. This presentation addresses this gap in knowledge and provides insights into an on-going research project on ten elite athletes preparing for a major competition in 2016. A longitudinal case-study design is used to follow eight Olympic and two non-Olympic athletes from fall 2015 to fall 2016. A combination of methods, namely a weekly questionnaire, three semi-structured interviews and a training observation will produce data on athletes’ career development, training demands, well-being, and sporting contexts. Hodkinson & Sparkes (1997) theory ‘careership’ serves as analytic tool to identify critical events and to understand how they shape athletes’ understanding and decisions for/against bodily risk taking. Preliminary findings from the research project will be presented focusing on how sporting contexts shape athletes’ pre-competition phase experiences. Further, insights will be given into how theses contexts contribute to athletes’ experiences and handling of bodily ‘failing’ in the pre-competition phase.