The Family Puzzle in Ironman Triathlon

Abstract

Departing from a qualitative research approach, this chapter focuses on Ironman triathletes and their family life. The main purpose of the chapter is to investigate how an elite amateur lifestyle is upheld and balanced with the demands of a sustainable family and social life. The results indicate that the process of becoming and staying an Ironman creates tensions in intimate relationships, making it hard to bring the family life puzzle together. Elite amateur sport involves extreme bodies and extreme discipline. The materiality of these bodily projects clearly interferes with family life and sets limits on what can be achieved in terms of valuable intimate time. Although the participants interviewed often talk about family life in terms of sharing things fairly equally, in terms of gender equity and involved parenthood, this seemingly is not always an easy ideal to fulfil in practice. On a broader cultural level, these findings can thus be contextualised in relation to discourses associated with the gendering of families and functions, and, of course, the gender of sport and performance.