ABSTRACT
Role conflict has been proposed as one of the barriers for women in sports coaching, while the challenges that women coaches face when experiencing motherhood have only been partially explored. In line with existing literature focusing on motherhood in athletes, in this study, we aimed to illuminate the socio-cultural narratives existing in the sport culture around motherhood and coaching. A relativist narrative inquiry approach was adopted, with story completion as the chosen method. Eleven women coaches were asked to complete two story stems, focusing on the story of a former elite athlete who became a coach and had just been offered to be the national coach, preparing for the Olympics, when they discover a pregnancy. The difference in the stems was simply the gender of the coach: in one case, it was Tanya, a successful woman coach who was also pregnant, while in the other story it was Jay, a successful man coach, whose wife was pregnant. Following narrative thematic analysis, the stories highlighted that while both women and men needed support to try managing the dual position, overall women ended up having to choose, while men were able to continue with their lives, enjoying both career and family life.
