Elite athletes’ lifestyles: Consumerism to professionalism

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 17; no. 9; p. e0269287
• Main Authors: Mohamadi Turkmani, Ehsan, Safari Jafarloo, Hamid Reza, Dehghan Ghahfarokhi, Amin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: San Francisco Public Library of Science 26.09.2022; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Addictions; Analysis; Athletes; Biology and Life Sciences; Consumer advocacy; Consumerism; Consumption; Data analysis; Economic aspects; Elites; Empirical analysis; Ethical aspects; Gender differences; Habitus; Health aspects; Indicators; Leisure; Life style; Lifestyles; Professional soccer; Professional sports; Professionalism; Professionalization; Religious behavior; Research and Analysis Methods; Responsibility; Sampling methods; Snowball sampling; Social aspects; Social classes; Social groups; Social Sciences; Sports; Unstructured data; Iran
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0269287

Today, elite athletes form an important social group, and the non-sport facets of their lives matter as much as their sports performances. However, there has been little empirical research on the lifestyles of elite athletes. Therefore, this study aimed to develop knowledge about the Iranian elite athletes’ lifestyle. The study was conducted with a qualitative approach in two phases. Glaserian grounded theory was used in the first phase, and thematic analysis was used in the second phase. Participants of the first phase included 19 sports experts, such as sports sociologists, sports psychologists, and sports coaches, who were selected by purposive and snowball sampling methods for holding unstructured in-depth interviews. The data were simultaneously analyzed using a set of open, theoretical, selective coding and memos. The codes were grouped into three different categories with different natures. The emerged theory advanced our understanding of the lifestyle shaping structures of elite athletes, lifestyle indicators, and even professionalization of their lifestyles. According to the results, the Iranian elite athletes’ lifestyles include indicators, such as professional mindset, competencies, life vision, financial literacy, responsibility, consumption, leisure, personal issues, and religious behavior. Subjects of the second phase were 44 Iranian athletes in the national levels who participated voluntarily in the study. The data were analyzed by thematic analysis method, and lifestyles typologies were identified. Based on results, five dominant lifestyles among the Iranian elite athletes were identified: consumerist, easy going, socially useful, profit-oriented, and professional. Finally, the features of each lifestyle were discussed.