ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we explore the relations of care that are entangled with the material-discursive relations of motherhood, women, and sport. Through our feminist new materialist approach, we explore how motherhood is valorised, and entangled with infrastructures of care, such as mentoring, or other gendered roles in clubs that are tied up with motherhood. Drawing on Barad's notion of diffraction as a methodology, along with post-qualitative inquiry, we explore these relations of care, through our writings as two sportswomen, one a mother (Adele) and one a non-mother (Wendy). Diffracting our stories through popular tropes we ask, what do notions of sacrifice, guilt, privilege, and criticism do in relation to non-mothers and mothers in their sporting experience? We argue that if we hold onto the notion of sacrifice, for example, mothers putting their participation on hold, then we risk perpetuating sport inequalities. Our research also highlights that there are many women athletes, who are not mothers, either by choice or not, and we need to be sensitive to these differences when researching mothers in sport. Womanhood and motherhood are often conflated, but are not the same.
