"As a British athlete, coach and team manager, McKenna experienced first-hand the pressures of managing athlete performance, wellbeing and the pursuit of medals. She saw the push and pull between the inherent creativity in pipe and park snowsport events and the drive for standardisation to make it easier to compare athletes. The Joy of Six: incredible Winter Olympics moments She felt the tension between the long-term joy of pursuing these sports and the external push for short-term results."
"McKenna already knew that risk and aesthetics played a major role in snowboarding and wanted to analyse and explain these concepts better and understand how they interlink. Risk isn't just danger for its own sake, it involves how the human mind processes uncertainty, consequences and commitment. Aesthetics relate to style, creativity, flow and how something is done not just whether a move is landed or not."
Action sports combine creativity, risk and aesthetic expression that extend beyond measurable outcomes. High-performance sport systems typically prioritise times, scores, rankings and medals, creating pressure for short-term results that can erode long-term enjoyment. Risk involves how the mind processes uncertainty, potential consequences and levels of commitment rather than danger alone. Aesthetics encompass style, creativity, flow and how movements are performed, not solely successful execution. Athletes, coaches, judges and performance leaders across snowboarding, freeskiing, skateboarding and surfing report tension between standardisation for comparison and the sports' inherent creativity. Designing high-performance environments that value risk and aesthetics alongside outcomes can help sustain both excellence and meaningful participation.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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