We hope for this page to develop into a reference point related to research on abuse in sport and the use of creative methods. We aim to keep this list up-to-date and continue adding references as we go.

Research on abuse in sport using creative methods

Barker-Ruchti, N. (2008). ” They must be working hard”: An (auto-) ethnographic account of women’s artistic gymnastics. Cultural Studies? Critical Methodologies, 8(3), 372-380. https://doi.org/10.1177/1532708607310799

Cavallerio, F., Wadey, R., & Wagstaff, C. R. (2016). Understanding overuse injuries in rhythmic gymnastics: A 12-month ethnographic study. Psychology of sport and exercise, 25, 100-109. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2016.05.002

Cavallerio, F., Wadey, R., & Wagstaff, C. R. (2022). Impacting and being impacted by overuse injuries: An ethnodrama of parents’ experiences. Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health, 14(1), 19-36. https://doi.org/10.1080/2159676X.2021.1885480

Kousalova, M., Wagstaff, C. R. D., Cavallerio, F., Brown, D. J. (in press) ‘A Ticket to a Very Different Show’: Poetic Ethnodrama Through the Eyes of Young Elite Gymnasts. Qualitative Inquiry

Lewis, C. J., Roberts, S. J., Andrews, H., & Sawiuk, R. (2020). A creative writing case study of gender-based violence in coach education: Stacey’s story. Women in Sport and Physical Activity Journal, 28(1), 72-80. http://doi.org/10.1123/wspaj.2018-0046

McMahon, J., Penney, D., & Dinan-Thompson, M. (2011). ‘Body practices—exposure and effect of a sporting culture?’ Stories from three Australian swimmers . Sport, Education and Society, 17(2), 181–206. https://doi.org/10.1080/13573322.2011.607949

McMahon, J., & McGannon, K. R. (2015). Whose stories matter? Re-vising, reflecting and re-discovering a researcher’s embodied experience as a narrative inquirer. Sport, Education and Society, 21(1), 96–113. https://doi.org/10.1080/13573322.2015.1076779

McMahon, J. A., & McGannon, K. R. (2017). Do what (s) HE Says and You Will Be a Champion: Poetic representations and the unmuting of my swimmer body. Qualitative inquiry, 23(6), 411-415. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077800416672695

McMahon, J., Zehntner, C., & McGannon, K. R. (2017). Fleshy, female and forty: A docudrama of a former elite swimmer who re-immersed herself into elite swimming culture. Qualitative research in sport, exercise and health, 9(5), 546-553. https://doi.org/10.1080/2159676X.2017.1340328

McMahon, J., & McGannon, K. R. (2019). ‘I hurt myself because it sometimes helps’: former athletes’ embodied emotion responses to abuse using self-injury. Sport, Education and Society, 26(2), 161–174. https://doi.org/10.1080/13573322.2019.1702940

McMahon, J. (2022). Navigating legacies of athlete abuse in motherhood: Creative analytical practices as a tool for uncovering post-sport embodiment and practices. In Motherhood and Sport (pp. 176-190). Routledge.

Work in progress…

Research discussing the use of creative methods in qualitative research

Cavallerio, F. (Ed.). (2022). Creative nonfiction in sport and exercise research. London, UK: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003038900

Geers, A.-R. (2024). Private and Confidential: Activism Poetry as Poetic Inquiry. Qualitative Inquiry, 31(5), 456-469. https://doi.org/10.1177/10778004241246062

McMahon, J., & McGannon, K. R. (2024). Abstracting the Legacy of Abuse in Post-Sport: Using Arts-Based Methods and Friendship as Method to Limit Re-Traumatisation in Abuse and Trauma Research. In Trauma-Informed Research in Sport, Exercise, and Health (pp. 69-88). Routledge.

McMahon, J., McGannon, K. R., & Zehntner, C. (2024). Arts-based methods as a trauma-informed approach to research: Making trauma visible and limiting harm. Methods in Psychology, 10, 100141. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.metip.2024.100141

Middleton, T. R., Wadey, R., Cavallerio, F., Wagstaff, C. R., & Sparkes, A. C. (2025). Telling tales in sport, exercise, and performance psychology: The how, what, and why of creative analytical practices. Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology, 14(1), 160-174. https://doi.org/10.1037/spy0000363

Orr, K., Smith, B., Arbour-Nicitopoulos, K. P., & Wright, F. V. (2021). The café talk: a discussion of the process of developing a creative non-fiction. Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health, 13(6), 887-903. https://doi.org/10.1080/2159676X.2020.1834443

Prince, C. (2022). Experiments in methodology: sensory and poetic threads of inquiry, resistance, and transformation. Qualitative inquiry, 28(1), 94-107. https://doi.org/10.1177/10778004211014611

Smith, B., McGannon, K. R., & Williams, T. L. (2015). Ethnographic creative nonfiction: Exploring the whats, whys and hows. In Ethnographies in sport and exercise research (pp. 59-73). Routledge.

Sparkes, A. C., Nilges, L., Swan, P., & Dowling, F. (2003). Poetic Representations in Sport and Physical Education: Insider Perspectives 1. Sport, Education and Society, 8(2), 153–177.https://doi.org/10.1080/13573320309256

Work in progress…