The objective of this study was to explore the career narratives of professional athletes from underserved communities in the United States. Two African American athletes (named Marcus and Imari for the study), who both met the criteria of playing at least one year in a professional league and spending their formative years in an underserved community, participated in this study. Life story interviews lasting about two hours were explored through the principles of narrative analysis, focusing on both content and structure. Each participant constructed a sink or swim narrative typology termed risk, descent, and gain that focused more on the environmental context in an underserved community than their athletic development, which opposes the performance narrative often depicted by professional athletes. Although the contextualized nature of risk manifested differently for Marcus and Imari, their life courses both reflected low points precipitated by risky decisions or circumstances followed by gainful moments ultimately culminating in professional contracts. The analysis also uncovered the realities and challenges associated with having the intersecting identity of being a poor, Black aspiring athlete in a racially charged atmosphere. Finally, the athletes' perceptions of how their challenging formative development influenced their professional career pathway as well as the ramifications of sink or swim narratives in popular American culture are considered.

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The aim of this study was to explore 11 case examples of successful talent development collaborations between sport federations, municipalities, and local clubs in Denmark in order to identify potential shared features of successful collaborations. We hypothesized that each case example would be unique, but that they would also share features that could be organized to provide practitioners with a model to guide the improvement of their practice. Grounded in the holistic ecological approach, the study was designed as a multiple case study to facilitate a cross-case analysis. Three Danish sport federations (handball, ice hockey, and swimming), nine municipalities, and eleven local clubs participated in the study, and the data was generated from 23 semi-structured interviews with stakeholders. Analysis led to the construction of six shared features of successful interorganizational collaboration organized into: (1) a list of features (SFIC-TD) with positive and opposite pole descriptors and three categories: collaborative philosophy, collaborative decisions, and collaborative actions, and (2) an applied framework termed the pyramid model for optimization of interorganizational collaboration in talent development (PIC-TD) which illustrates how the abovementioned categories lead to collaborative outcomes. Developing a shared philosophy of talent development was found to be a foundational starting point for successful collaboration between relevant organizations on the micro- and macro-level to improve the local athletic talent development environment.

Acknowledgements, we would like to thank all of the study participants, Holly Book and Anna Daudert for their help with this project, and many thanks to the Wilson Foundation for their continued support. Oatmeal is better than no meal: The career pathways of African American male professional athletes from underserved communities in the United StatesThe objective of this study was to explore career pathways to athletic success in American professional athletes with low socioeconomic background. Ten African American professional male athletes, who met the criteria of playing at least one year in a professional league and spending their formative years in an American underserved community, participated in the study. Interviews inspired by the cultural praxis of athletes' careers, lasted 68-137 minutes, and the transcripts were thematically analysed.Four career stages (childhood years, middle/high school years, college years, professional years) and three themes (context, challenges, coping) were visible in the career pathways of the participants. During the first stage the athletes' athletic foundation was developed by participating in inexpensive, easy to access sports in unstructured sporting environments, while simultaneously relying upon the strength of a mother to keep them safe. An increased susceptibility to the dangers of environmental factors (e.g., drugs, gangs) during the middle/high school years made this period of time the most precarious for the athletes, but was also the most crucial for their athletic development. The college years were a time of "catching up," whereby the athletes entered a whole new environment for which they were physically (e.g., underweight) and psycho-socially (e.g., racial integration) unprepared, but their hard work and the help of peers and coaches propelled them to success (i.e., professional contract). Finally, the results indicate that coping resources the athletes developed dealing with hardship were perceived as key factors enabling them to endure the difficulties of a professional career.

This study explores the primary challenges faced and strategies implemented in underserved athletic talent development environments (UATDEs) in the United States and examines how developing within such environments impacts athletes once they reach the college and professional levels of sports. Thirteen stakeholders (M = 10, F = 3), who had significant experience working with professional and youth athletes from underserved communities, participated in the study. Unstructured interviews lasting slightly over an hour (M = 74 minutes) were analyzed using the principles of reflexive thematic analysis and the process uncovered two categories: shared features of school-based UATDEs in the United States and the ripple effects of trauma which were used to structure the findings. Within these two categories, primary themes were presented relating to the challenges observed and strategies implemented to overcome these obstacles in UATDEs as well as how developing within a UATDE can influence an athlete upon leaving the environment. The study found that stakeholders (i.e., administrators, coaches, etc.) who work within UATDEs must be aware of the inherent challenges that the environment creates and how to best support the athletes who require increased psychosocial developmental attention.Further, the same stakeholders also need to be supported in their work. Finally, when athletes from UATDEs leave the environment, stress inducing traumatic events of their formative years may stay with them requiring that stakeholders at the university and professional levels provide support to those that need it as talent can suffer from trauma.