Related Projects

Elite sport coaching and integrity: The fine line between excellence and abuse

Kim, Yoon Jin (2021)

Funded by the 2020 IOC Early Career Academics Research Grant of the Olympic Studies Centre

Summary:

Coaching elite athletes at the Olympic level inescapably includes intensive training regimes that often risk falling into abusive practices. This project examines the fragile and vulnerable task of elite sports coaching – walking the fine line between excellence and abuse. In order to spotlight the contentious space where coaches’ endeavours to push to the limit collide with the ethics of safeguarding athletes, this research focuses on elite coaches migrating to cultures with different social/sporting norms from their own. Migrant South Korean coaches serve as the main cases given their experiences in the previous authoritative training regime in South Korea and current challenges they face overseas. Drawing on the data obtained from a range of documentary materials and in-depth interviews with seven Korean migrant coaches who worked in Western nations, the report presents the findings of the following three study units: (1) international coach migration that occurred at the nexus between individual coaches’ desires and the global sporting arms race; (2) a contested arena of inter-cultural coaching; and (3) reformation of coaching practice aligned with the norms of Western society. The findings of this project contribute to on-going academic discussions and the policy efforts of the Olympic Movement with respect to the issues of cultivating safe sporting environments.