SPEAKERS

  • Dawn-Marie Armstrong, BSc., MSc., DSportExPsy, CPsychol, AFHEA, HCPC, Loughborough University

  • Thierry Middleton, PhD, FHEA, University of Portsmouth

  • Robert Owens, EdD, LCMHC, CMPC, CSCS, CPSS, TSAC-F, Valor Performance

  • Shameema Yousuf, MSc, MEd, CMPC, MBACP, Empower2Perform (Moderator)


OVERVIEW
International sports migration has become a burgeoning area of interest in sport studies scholarship over the last few decades (Besnier et al., 2018; Carter, 2013). Though under-represented in the sport psychology literature, the experiences of international athletes migrating across borders during their athletic careers (cf. Paul & Yeoh, 2020) should be of interest to applied sport psychology practitioners. Some of these athletes inhabit multiple, intersectional identities and may encounter sociocultural and geo-political structures designed to create barriers to transnational mobility, and forestall the athlete’s rights for self-determination (Yousuf, 2022; Yousuf, in review). Given the global flow of athlete migration, practitioners should consider how international athletes cope and adapt within host nations vis-à-vis the processes of acculturation (Chirkov, 2009; Schinke et al., 2015). Furthermore, to understand and examine the experiences of athletes with multiple, intersectional identities requires an understanding of the social structures that seek to disempower or privilege particular athletic identities or bodies over others. These structures have the power to render bodies and (intersectional/transnational) identities immobile, invisible, marginal, and/or vulnerable to the cultural imaginaries of the host nation. How international student-athletes can culturally transition (Ryba et al., 2016) within collegiate environments in their host countries and continue to sustain optimal athletic performance (Streno et al., 2020) is a matter for consideration. Through research, illustration, personal stories, and mediated accounts, the speakers in this webinar will explore dominant worldviews that promote and sustain practices that are either incongruent with an athlete’s status, values, and belief systems or fall short of demonstrating the psychological care and safety needed for optimal performance.