Endurance sports such as trail running, gravel cycling, and long-distance triathlon have grown rapidly in visibility through digital and social media over recent years. This has created new opportunities, while also contributing to pressures around performance, identity, and wellbeing.
This project aims to centre athletes perspectives of these tensions and the evolving media contexts. Using qualitative methods, the research focuses on how athletes experience media environments, organisational expectations, and welfare practices in their everyday lives.
The research forms part of an ongoing doctoral project at Durham University, which is supported by the ESRC.
About the researcher
I’m a doctoral researcher working at the intersection of sport, media, and everyday life. My work draws from interdisciplinary perspectives shaped by my background in sociology, anthropology, and media & cultural studies.
This PhD project builds on my previous research which explored how mental health is understood in sporting contexts, and how mental health is presented in the media. I’m particularly interested in exploring how digital media has changed the working lives of endurance athletes, and the implications of this for athlete wellbeing.
My interest in these sports specifically stems from my own background and involvement in endurance sport, something which informs my athlete-centred approach.
Endurance Sports Research 