Enhancing the Well-Being of Elite Sport Performers Operating in High Performance Environments

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In the United Kingdom, approximately 1,300 athletes are enrolled in the World Class Programme (UK Sport, 2018). At a global level, the World Players Association union includes over 85,000 athlete members. Athletes train and compete within complex organisational structures that have a collective ethical and legal obligation to safeguard athletes' welfare (Giles, Fletcher, Arnold, Ashfield, & Harrison, 2020). This duty of care extends beyond athletes' physical health to include their mental and social well-being and is perhaps most needed in elite level sport, where an insatiable need for success can be at odds with living a balanced lifestyle. Sport scholars, psychologists, practitioners, organisations, and policy makers are increasingly invested in supporting the quest to optimise athletes' health and well-being in elite sport and there is a need to strengthen the evidence-base underpinning their work. Working collaboratively with Loughborough University, University of Bath, and the English Institute of Sport my doctoral research investigated the nature of athletes' well-being and its measurement in elite sport through a series of studies. These provided: (1) recommendations for progressing the measurement of athletes' well-being; (2) a model of athletes' well-being; (3) knowledge about the predictors of athletes' well-being; and (4) a diagnostic tool to assess well-being in athletes. Yet the lack of interventions purposefully developed in sport in relation to athletes' well-being is halting progress in the sport sector (e.g. Fletcher & Sarkar, 2016; Giles, 2021).The aim of my proposed Fellowship is to produce an evidence-based approach to enhancing athletes' well-being in elite sport. This will enable me to take part in activities to consolidate my doctoral research, build a publication track record, and establish myself as a research leader in the field. This will involve: (1) publishing high quality research articles that extend insight into the ways that enhance athletes' well-being with leading lights from the School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences at Loughborough University and beyond; (2) establishing partnerships with leading research institutions in the United Kingdom (i.e. University of Bath and University of Portsmouth) focused on publishing two significant review articles in this field; (3) building relationships with key stakeholders in the sport sector through links at Loughborough University with an international network of organisations and associations (e.g. the Centre for Sport and Human Rights, FIFA, International Olympic Committee) to share research findings and maximise impact; (4) collaborating with national and international academics (e.g. Prof G Kerr; Prof K Kauffman; Prof K Mori; Dr A Brady) and key stakeholders (e.g. representatives from FIFA, IOC, Safe Sport International, UNICEF, Commonwealth Secretariat, World Players Association) in sport globally to conduct a pilot research study and develop a large funding application focused on athlete well-being worldwide; (5) forming an expert advisory panel (impact panel) focused on producing an intervention framework and recommendations for best practice, and identifying pathways to communicate research findings to key industry stakeholders and groups; (6) presenting my research at national and international conferences; and (7) attending high quality training seminars at Loughborough University and the National Centre for Research Methods to enhance my capability to successfully bid for funding opportunities.In summary, the proposed Fellowship activities and research will consolidate and extend my doctoral research and enable me to establish myself as a research leader in the field of athlete well-being. Significantly, the proposed Fellowship outputs will positively impact the lives of sport performers worldwide and shape how sport puts people - their safety, well-being, and welfare - at the centre of what sport does (Grey-Thompson, 2017).