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Defining the Liminal Athlete: An Exploration of the Multi-Dimensional Liminal Condition in Professional Sport

Sutton, Frances Santagate
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1492612100468383

Abstract Details

2017, Master of Arts, Ohio State University, Anthropology.
In the United States, professional athletes exist on a spectrum between “amateurs” and “professionals” determined by social and economic factors. Professional athletes who do not identify with the extremes of this spectrum are situated in liminal space. In an ethnographic study of professional Ultimate Frisbee in the United States, I build on the existing models of liminality from Turner (1969) and Thomassen (2014) and demonstrate that there are social, economic, and physiological dimensions of liminality for professional athletes. This pilot study included three months of ethnographic fieldwork (May-July 2016), during which time I observed and interviewed members of two men’s professional Ultimate Frisbee teams, the Cincinnati Revolution (American Ultimate Disc League) and the Boston Whitecaps (Major League Ultimate). Participant observation and interviews provided insight into the life of the “liminal athlete.” Five common themes emerged from qualitative data: “Priorities Beyond Professional Sport,” “Responsibilities of a Professional Sport,” “Athletic Eating,” “Budgeting and Planning,” and “Different Definitions of Professional Athlete.” Each theme describes a quality of the liminal athlete. These qualities define the liminal athlete and where they fit in the world of sport. For professional Ultimate Frisbee players, liminal status is indefinite and affects social, economic, and physiological aspects of their lives. Liminal athletes demonstrate a need for a more flexible model of liminality in anthropology, one that includes expanded temporal dimensions for the liminal phase and analysis of the effects of the liminal condition. Traditional models of liminality (van Gennep 1909, Turner 1969) as a finite phase of ritual do not aptly outline the experience of liminality for professional athletes, such as Ultimate Frisbee players. By combining liminal models from Turner (1969) and Thomassen (2014), I create a flexible liminal model and critically examine the costs and benefits of status in professional sports for the athletes who play them. Understanding the liminal condition is important to the studies of professional athletics and elite athletes. The results of this study indicate that all professional athletes undergo a liminal phase. Future research measuring athletes’ nutrition, stress, and energy expenditure would allow us to examine the degree of the physiological effects of liminality.
Jeffrey Cohen, PhD (Advisor)
Douglas Crews, PhD (Committee Member)
Debbie Guatelli-Steinberg, PhD (Committee Member)
83 p.
Cultural Anthropology
Liminality; Ultimate Frisbee; Liminal Athlete; Cincinnati Revolution; Boston Whitecaps; Major League Ultimate; American Ultimate Disc League

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Sutton, F. S. (2017). Defining the Liminal Athlete: An Exploration of the Multi-Dimensional Liminal Condition in Professional Sport [Master's thesis, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1492612100468383

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Sutton, Frances. Defining the Liminal Athlete: An Exploration of the Multi-Dimensional Liminal Condition in Professional Sport . 2017. Ohio State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1492612100468383.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Sutton, Frances. "Defining the Liminal Athlete: An Exploration of the Multi-Dimensional Liminal Condition in Professional Sport ." Master's thesis, Ohio State University, 2017. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1492612100468383

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1492612100468383
714
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This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.