Episode 18: Research Chat | "WAGs" experiences, Systematic Review, For Partners and Club Staff

This week Dr. Phoebe talks through her published research- a review of the existing academic literature about the experiences of romantic partners of professional athletes across different countries and sporting affiliations. The hope is that partners may feel some comfort in the reflection of their experiences in this research, being acknowledged and heard by academics in research. Also for sport club staff, this paper justifies the need for support to be catered for partners of professional athletes and can potentially spark ideas for what that support could look like. The number of commonalities drawn in this review show that “WAGs” experiences are more similar than different, regardless of sport or home country. Professionals could look to other leagues and sports for resources in how to best support athletes’ families, seeing that the academic research in this area is so sparse. Some personal stories and examples are also told throughout. See the link below to read more:

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/16138171.2025.2475659#abstract