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47 adversity and growth. The authors discuss a number of practical implications for psychologists

48 and significant others involved with elite swimmers.

49 Keywords: autobiographies, elite, narrative, qualitative, sport, swimming

50 51 ADVERSITY AND GROWTH IN OLYMPIC SWIMMING CHAMPIONS

3 Sink or Swim: Adversity- and Growth-Related

52 Experiences in Olympic Swimming Champions

53 Over the past few decades, the topic of adversity has received increasing interest within

54 the academic literature. Luthar and Cicchetti (2000) defined adversity as typically encompassing

55 negative life circumstances that are known to be statistically associated with adjustment

56 difficulties (p. 858). This perspective employs a threshold-dependent definition of adversity

57 analogous to the notion of risk (Fletcher &

Sarkar, 2013), whereas other researchers have adopted

58 a less stringent and broader approach to defining adversity. For example, Jackson, Firtko, and

59 Edenborough (2007) defined adversity as the state of hardship or suffering associated with

60 misfortune, trauma, distress, difficulty, or a tragic event (p. 3). The definitional focus shifts

61 from a predominately external '

circumstance'

to incorporating internal cognitions and affect,

62 thereby conceiving adversity as a relational '

state'

between an individual and his or her

63 environment. Since the relationship between environmental stressors and psychological

64 outcomes is highly complex (cf. Jones &

Bright, 2001;

McMahon, Grant, Compas, Thurm, &

Ey,

65 2003), sport psychology researchers have typically adopted a broader perspective of adversity,

66 exploring sexual harassment or abuse (Fasting, Brackenridge, &

Walseth, 2002;

Tamminen, Holt,

67 &

Neely, 2013), depression (Galli &

Reel, 2012a;

Mummery, 2005), emotional abuse or bullying

68 (Stirling &

Kerr, 2008;

Tamminen et al., 2013), eating disorders (Papathomas &

Lavallee, 2010;

69 Tamminen et al., 2013), and injury (Galli &

Reel, 2012a;

Wadey, Evans, Evans, &

Mitchell,

70 2011).

71 Adversities clearly represent difficult periods in people'

s lives;

however, various religious

72 and philosophical writing, anecdotal evidence, and psychosocial theory and research collectively

73 point to the potential for individuals to experience growth following such experiences (Tedeschi

74 &

Calhoun, 1995). Within the psychology literature, various terms have been used to describe

75 growth-related experiences, including perceived benefits (Affleck, Tennen, Croog, &

Levine,

76 1987), positive changes in outlook (Joseph, Williams, &

Yule, 1993), stress-related growth (SRG;

77 Park, Cohen, &

Murch, 1996), posttraumatic growth (PTG;

Tedeschi &

Calhoun, 1996), thriving

78 ADVERSITY AND GROWTH IN OLYMPIC SWIMMING CHAMPIONS

4 (Carver, 1998), positive by-products (McMillen, Howard, Nower, &

Chung, 2001), positive

79 adaptation (Linley, 2003), and adversarial growth (Linley &

Joseph, 2004). Although these terms

80 all pertain to growth-related experiences, there are often subtle differences at a conceptual level.

81 For example, Park (2009) identified four main differences between SRG and PTG relating to: (a)

82 the severity of the event (with PTG involving a more severe occurrence), (b) the mechanism of

83 growth (PTG assumes a restructuring of basic life assumptions whereas SRG involves making