Sport promotes enjoyment, social interaction, embodied learning, and health. At the same time, it serves as a setting where people learn and navigate certain ideals and norms. Given the physical nature of sport, body norms and their impact on performance are particularly central. These body norms are intrinsically linked to gender norms. Most sports follow a binary structure, categorizing athletes as male or female, shaping expectations of how bodies should look and perform. Coaches play a key role in reinforcing these norms. For example, they have been shown to encourage weight-controlling behaviors and demand extreme weight loss, arguing that it enhances performance. Research on the athlete’s body and its role in body-critical coaching practices has primarily focused on women’s sports. This study aims to provide in-depth knowledge about the positioning of elite athletes as masculine-gendered beings in sports in relation to norms surrounding the masculine body.
Building on the importance of the coach, 12 Swedish elite coaches from 9 different sports were interviewed about the role of body weight, shape, and size in their respective sports. Imaginary positions were used as a lens to map and understand norms of the masculine sporting body. Exploring imaginary positions empirically involves analyzing patterns of what are known as practical ideologies—described in this case by sports coaches—and how these ideologies shape what is considered possible or impossible in sport.
Elite athletes construct themselves as masculine-gendered beings by navigating five imagined positions: the performing athlete, the fit athlete, the ironic athlete, the social athlete, and the self-regulated athlete. The greatest tension arises between the performing and fit athlete positions, as societal ideals of fitness can conflict with the demands of peak performance. However, in general, these positions largely reinforce one another. Athletes are expected to see their bodies as tools to calibrate, maintaining a detached and carefree attitude. This detachment is expressed through irony, joking about their own and others’ bodies, and being social. Athletes who are introverted or sensitive about their bodies face barriers. Some exceptionally skilled athletes may bypass certain expectations, but few can resist hegemonic masculinities. Interestingly, female athletes, perceived as more sensitive, may challenge norms and influence body ideals in sport.
The findings present an argument for sport organisations to reconsider the traditional practice of organizing training along gendered lines. While such an approach is more feasible in individual sports, we encourage team sports to explore opportunities for mixed-gender training sessions as well.
Nevertheless, working with mixed-gender groups alone is insufficient. To effectively challenge gendered stereotypes, coaching practices must adopt what Pederson and colleagues (2015) term a “gender-transformative” approach, which involves actively reshaping harmful gender roles and relations. While our study does not provide concrete examples of such practices, we aim to encourage coaches and other key stakeholders to critically engage with gender issues related to the masculine sporting body.
2025.