Understanding women athlete concussion in socio-cultural context: a media analysis of Eugenie Bouchard’s concussion

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to explore the news media’s portrayal of one elite Canadian athlete, tennis player Eugenie Bouchard, and her performance decline after sustaining a concussion outside of sport. An ethnographic content analysis was used to examine news media reports of prior to, and after the concussion. An overarching theme of ‘performance decline beyond tennis’ was identified in the pre- and post-concussion North American media articles. These results show the value of studying one media incident focusing on a woman athlete, highlighting the impact of the concussion within and outside of tennis. The present study of Bouchard’s career adds to sport psychology injury literature as it demonstrated the inconceivable resiliency and mental toughness an athlete had to face during recovery and return-to-play, inconsistency due to coaching changes, an inability to recover from injuries, and a decline in rankings, all caused by confidence issues.