Chasing an Olympic dream: a holistic approach to how youth athletes narrate injuries, performance, and the value of being seen

Figures & data

Figure 1. Overview of the three phases and interviewed athletes in sport specialised secondary sport school, (SSSS) and sport academy high school (SAHS).

Table 1. Overview of the longitudinal data collection.

	Interviews	Observations
10 Athletes (annually)	Individual interviews (n = 32) n = 6 focus groups interviews	The first three year we conducted weekly observations. The following years it was more on a distant
Parents	Individual interviews (n = 6) after 4 years into the investigation	Informal talks and observations of the parents during about 12 matches per year and in addition observation at two parental club meetings organised by the club coaches each year
Coaches	Individual interviews with coaches at two different school (n = 3) on several occasions under the investigation	Informal talks and observations of the club coaches during 1–2 training sessions per month
Sport school representatives	Individual interviews (n = 2)

Table 2. Overview of the 10 handball players and their part in the project. Players marked with * participated the longest in the project.

	SSSS/SAHS	Major injury and year	Being “seen” by the club coach and national/regional team	Level handball or occupation in 2022
No 1 *	yes/yes	Patellar tendon fracture 2020	yes/no	Elite level/part-time student
No 2 *	yes/yes	Stress fracture 2016	yes/yes	Elite level/part-time student
No 3 *	yes/yes	Never	yes/no	Division 1/Full time student
No 4	yes/yes	Lower back injury 2017	Yes and no/no	Full time student
No 5	yes/no	Compartment syndrome 2017	no/no	Military
No 6	yes/no	ancle rupture of ligamentum medialis 2020	no/no	NCAA scholarship, football/student
No 7	no/yes	2020 ACL	yes/yes	Elite level/Full time student
No 8 *	no/yes	Elbow, shoulder, broken wrist, acute syndesmosis rupture	yes/no	Division I/Full time student
No 9	no/yes	Shoulder 2019	no/no	Military
No 10	no/yes	ACL 2020	no/no	Full time student