ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I examine the difficulties associated with establishing risk “facts” specific to pregnant elite athletes, using as my empirical site the International Olympic Committee (IOC) evidence summaries on exercise and pregnancy in recreational and elite athletes. I argue that, in the case of the pregnant elite athlete, scientists have been unable to assemble sufficient entities (human and non-human) to enact evidence-based risk “facts” about how much and how far is safe. To support my argument, I employ theoretical and methodological insights from the field of Science and Technology Studies (STS), namely a material-semiotic approach. Material-semiotics provides the tools and sensibilities to explore how a scientific “fact” is assembled into a dense network of human and non-human entities that are simultaneously semiotic (they are relational and carry meanings) and material (human and non-human entities are caught up and given meaning in these relations) (Law, 2019). I mobilize the concepts of black-boxes and patterning to elucidate how knowledge networks – and risk “facts” – about elite pregnant athletes and high-intensity exercise have largely been “dis-qualified” when judged by the scientific standard of evidence-based medicine (EBM). Future directions for research utilizing a material-semiotic approach are suggested, including a study of a proposed international registry of elite athletes and a bibliometric examination of the IOC evidence summaries.
