From the pixie gymnastics stars of the 1970s to the 13-year-old skateboarding stars of the Tokyo Olympics, girl-child sports prodigies have always captured global media attention.
Despite our collective fascination with these athletes, young girls are often subject to significant mental and physical vulnerabilities in elite sporting environments.
Research from Dr Brigid McCarthy, Lecturer in Journalism, is examining the role of the media in shaping potentially harmful narratives of the girl-child sports prodigy.
“In the last decade, we’ve seen many examples of the mental and physical toll of elite sport on young girls. The Larry Nassar sexual abuse case in the United States spurred global revelations about toxic training cultures and abuse in elite gymnastics. In 2022, the world watched a 15-year-old figure skating gold medallist crumble on the Olympic ice following a positive doping test.”
“Yet each time another group of ‘pocket rockets’ rises through the sporting ranks, there is instant media fascination with their presence,” Dr McCarthy says.
Despite extensive research on media representations of women in sports, there has been little research into how the media covers girl-child athletes.
“My work has so far examined the coverage of Olympic gymnasts and skateboarders to better understand how the media produces child sports stars at the intersection of gender and age.”
Dr McCarthy has found that the media takes an “exceptional until proven vulnerable” approach to the coverage, despite discourse around girls’ safety in these contexts.
“The debate about whether it might be safe or appropriate for a child to compete in elite high-performance sporting environments like the Olympic Games is typically only raised at moments of crises.”
She also found that media outlets often idealised girl-child gymnasts who were seen as docile and compliant.
“Commentators praised child-aged gymnasts who were wordlessly obedient to coaches over more autonomous, outspoken women athletes. While innocuous at the time, it is problematic when placed in the context of the ongoing issues of child safety in the sport,” she says.
While sporting bodies around the world have begun to introduce more stringent approaches to child safety, and have even raised minimum competitive ages, Dr McCarthy’s research points to the role that the media can play in contributing to the oppression of girls in sport.
“The media must recognise the need for a more careful and ethical approach to covering the elite girl athlete despite the cultural fascination with exceptional children.”
Read more: https://bit.ly/3VUCNTc and https://bit.ly/3KUxRrb.
