“To push or not to push?”; Exploring lived experiences of former women track and field student-athletes who trained and competed through pain and injury.

Athletes are aware that with involvement in sport they are exposed to the risk of getting injured. Suffering an injury can be one of the most stressful experiences in a student-athlete’s athletic career and can cause a series of psychological, emotional, and social responses, as well as impact one’s sense of identity. The very sparse literature in the counseling field regarding student-athletes and lack of research in general, exploring women student-athletes and women track and field student-athletes in particular, contributes to the need for this study. The purpose of this study was to explore lived experiences of former women track and field college student-athletes who trained and competed through pain and injury. This study utilized a phenomenological approach and implemented semi-structured interviews. Over the course of a six-week period, a total of 10 participants completed a demographic questionnaire and were interviewed via Zoom to facilitate in-depth descriptions of their experiences. Moustakas (1994) methods consistent with qualitative phenomenological research design were used to facilitate the data analysis. A total of five major themes emerged from the data, including: identity, perception of pain and injury, student-athlete - coach relationship, support system, and psychological impact. This research found that the themes are interconnected and impact each other. The findings indicate that women track and field student-athletes who chose to train and compete through pain and injuries face identity challenges, which are further facilitated by student-athlete – coach relationship, one’s support system, and acceptance of the “push through the pain” mindset. This mindset was found to be further facilitated by the underlying belief that student-athlete role is a job for which participants have been compensated. Participants were also found to minimize and justify their pain as a coping mechanism to help them in continuing to train and compete despite being in pain and injured. The relationship between participants and their coaches was found to contribute to negative psychological experiences. All themes were closely connected with cognitive and emotional functioning of the participants. Implications for counselors and counselor educators as well as future research recommendations are discussed. However, the emphasis for counselors is to approach working with student-athletes from a holistic standpoint, disclose personal experiences with athletics early on in the therapeutic relationship, and provide substantial psychoeducation regarding intercorrelation between mental health and athletic performance.