Relational possibilities through arts-based methodologies: [re]presenting focus group research with female Olympic athletes

Feminists have suggested women’s ways of talking and sharing do not fit well with traditional scientific, individualistic, detached, depersonalised data collection strategies. However, it is not just during data collection where women’s relational sensibilities might be threatened. Traditional ways of analysing and representing interactions can also hide or distort relational aspects. In this paper, we adopt an arts-based methodology to explore the lives of four Olympic athletes shared during focus group research. Through a series of poems and stories, we provide an example of an experimental text that reanimates women’s lives, relationships and inter-connections. Such representations are especially vital in sport psychology research, to counter the dominance of the performance narrative.