Abstract

Through a phenomenologically-inspired approach, we explore some of the different ways in which
sportspeople experience asthma and adopt various ‘asthma identities’ in sport. Here, we focus upon
the centrality of the ‘visceral’ body in asthmatic being-in-the-world. The bodily disruptions
associated with asthma are likely to heighten awareness of the body-self and contingency, and may
‘amplify’ the ways in which sportspeople listen to their own embodied selves when engaged in
sporting action. This may lead to a re-ordering/re-negotiation of athletic and asthma identities
through ‘emotion work’ and ‘somatic work’. Drawing upon interview data from non-elite
sportspeople (n = 14), all of whom had been diagnosed with asthma, ranging in degree of severity,
we employ a narrative approach to explore asthma embodiment in sport via a tripartite typology;
Conformers, Contesters, Creators. This form of typology may be useful as a framework to assist both
health care and sporting professionals in developing more appropriate and effective rehabilitation
regimes for sportspeople, in order to improve the quality of treatment and outcomes.