Numerous studies have focused on athletes’ use of social media by examining the content posted on social media sites, revealing an opportunity to gather firsthand experiences from athletes. Using uses-and-gratifications theory as a theoretical framework to inform an open-ended questionnaire, the authors examined athlete attitudes toward their social media use during a major sport event, as well as the gratifications they received and the challenges they experienced from this use. The study assessed a sample of 57 athletes and their social media use across 20 international major sport events. Findings revealed that social media enabled athletes to communicate with family and friends. Having a connection to home through social media can make athletes feel relaxed in a high-pressure environment. The results reveal uses and gratifications not previously found in research on athlete social media, while also underscoring opportunities for sport organizations to enhance social-media-education programs they provide to athletes.

Social media present athletes with a number of benefits and challenges. As a result, various sport stakeholders have debated appropriate social media use among athletes at major sport events, with some suggesting that using these platforms can have negative consequences. The purpose of this research was to examine the elements of social media that athletes perceive to be distracting during major sport events and the practices they undertake to address such distractions. Interviews with Australian elite athletes (N = 15) were conducted and data were analysed using thematic analysis. The findings reveal several elements associated with distraction, including positive and unwanted messages, branding pressures, and competitor content. Athletes reported two key practices that assisted in overcoming distractions, including switching off and handing over the control of their social media accounts. The findings extend distraction-conflict theory to athlete social media research, while presenting a preliminary conceptual model to assist researchers in further understanding the potential impact of social media distractions on athletes. Opportunities for sport practitioners to develop or implement social media education programs are described.

Mothers with young children have been consistently identified in public health discourses as having lower levels of leisure time physical activity than the general population. They are subsequently positioned as an at risk population susceptible to, for example, weight gain and postnatal depression. Women's ethic of care and good mother discourses work together to constrain mother's physical activity levels. In addition, public health discourses attempt to mobilize mothers into engaging in regular, rigorous sessions of leisure time physical activity, which often creates a calculative relation to self as women try to meet the expectations prescribed by health professionals. In this article, however, we employ Foucault's ethics of self to explore how 18 mothers with young children problematized and resisted prescriptive notions such as the ethic of care to create a space to begin to practice self-care through participation in leisure-time physical activity.

Technology innovation plays a vital role in elite sport, yet often proceeds in an ad hoc manner, emerging from the grass roots of sport rather than as a strategic programmed activity. This paper presents a model for systematic technology innovation in sport. It was developed from an extensive review of innovation and management best practice from the literature and draws on successful examples of innovation in sport. The model uses needs assessment, context and stakeholder theory, together with structured enquiry, to establish technological literacy and identify translational and technology-ready opportunities to meet existing and emerging needs. It consolidates existing knowledge, translates exemplars of innovation from sport and other settings, and highlights process innovation as being a vital element in the achievement of innovation. The model is then applied to a professional sports organization demonstrating its utility as an organizational tool for planning for innovation and highlighting areas of best practice. Identification of near and mid-term opportunities for innovation was a key outcome.

The nature and scope of volunteer involvement in sport is well established, however research indicates that involvement in community sport volunteering is under threat (Cuskelly, 2005; Cuskelly, Taylor, Hoye & Darcy, 2005). Trends indicate volunteer hours per individual are decreasing and this can have significant implications for the successful operation of voluntary sport organizations and the subsequent benefits for participants and the communities in which they operate. This paper extends knowledge of the nature of volunteer engagement in sport by exploring the categorization of sport volunteers as "core" or "peripheral" based on self-reported levels of involvement and commitment within Voluntary Sport Organizations (VSO). Using a survey of 243 sport volunteers across three sports, we identified significant differences between core and peripheral volunteers based on their levels of involvement and commitment in their selfidentified primary sport organization roles. Implications of these findings for volunteer recruitment and retention, and for the provision of sport participation opportunities in the community are addressed.