Understanding How Athletes Manage Uncertainty in Sport.

Abstract

Uncertainty is a central feature of sport and has been extensively examined in sport science, primarily from performance-oriented perspectives such as anticipation, decision-making, and motor control. However, less attention has been given to how athletes subjectively perceive and experience uncertainty and how these interpretations shape their responses. The present study addresses this gap by exploring athletes' lived experiences of uncertainty in sport. Using a qualitative design, semi-structured interviews were conducted with former youth athletes from various sports. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis, generating 15 themes organized across key dimensions of uncertainty, including unpredictability, lack of information, internal versus external sources, and the appraisal of uncertainty as a threat or a challenge. Findings indicate that uncertainty is experienced as a multifaceted and subjective phenomenon shaped by perceived control, prior experience, and situational context. Athletes differed in how they interpreted uncertainty, with some perceiving it as threatening and others as an opportunity for growth, which in turn influenced emotional responses and coping strategies. Key coping mechanisms included communication, information seeking, social support, and focusing on controllable aspects of performance. These findings extend existing sport science literature by integrating experiential and interpretative dimensions of uncertainty with established performance-based approaches. Furthermore, the results suggest conceptual links with the construct of intolerance of uncertainty (IU), highlighting the potential value of examining individual differences in how athletes appraise and manage uncertainty. The study provides an exploratory foundation for future research integrating IU within sport contexts and underscores the importance of addressing both subjective and performance-related aspects of uncertainty in sport psychology.