Reconceptualising the Female Athlete Triad: Locating athletes’ bodies within the discursive practices of elite sporting environments

Abstract

The Female Athlete Triad is understood to be a sporting-specific health concern, seen almost exclusively amongst female athletes, and is regarded within the sport literature as consisting of a combination of three conditions: disordered eating, amenorrhea, and osteoporosis or osteopenia. Within the sport psychology literature, the Female Athlete Triad has typically been considered as a pathology residing within the individual. However, such pathology cannot be isolated from the sporting context in which body surveillance and regulation are ubiquitous. Indeed, the discursive practices surrounding such surveillance normalise and even privilege behaviours that might otherwise be considered pathological, ultimately producing an appropriate female athlete as one who engages in potentially harmful and pathological behaviours. This paper critiques existing literature on the Female Athlete Triad and disordered eating within the context of elite sport and draws on previous studies of interactions from routine body composition testing in order to contribute to, and challenge, existing understandings of the Female Athlete Triad.