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The realist tale presented in this essay invites you first to imagine, if you can, having a life story that in the telling involves being a fit, able-bodied, young man with a disciplined and dominating body, as described by Arthur Frank (1995), who loves playing sport, and rugby union football in particular . Also imagine a life story whose main themes, over the years, have centred on the development of a strong athletic identity and a sense of self based on a performing body. Now imagine, if you can, this story from a life history interview. In the second half [of the rugby match], we turned up the pressure. It must have been about five or ten minutes to go until the end of the match … I remember they [the other team] were coming at us, they were in their own half, there was I on the wing and he [the centre] was outside … Then, then, [silence— five seconds], then as he [the centre] got closer and closer, in a very split second I changed my mind, sort of changed my position, just fractionally. This was in a split second, he dipped his shoulder at the same time as I lowered my position and his shoulder hit me straight on the top of my head. It was a bang against a brick wall really … And the next minute I was lying on the floor saying : ‘‘Can you put my arms and legs down on the floor?’’ … It just never dawned on me that maybe I was paralyzed … In that moment I went from being a big strong man, to something totally opposite; to being disabled. The purpose of this essay is to present a brief overview of findings to date from a research project that focuses on the lived experiences of men in the United Kingdom who have suffered a spinal cord injury (sci) through playing the contact sport of rugby football union, and now define themselves as disabled. Three fundamental themes to emerge from the data 191 brett smith and andrew c. sparkes Men, Sport, and Spinal Cord Injury Identity Dilemmas, Embodied Time, and the Construction of Coherence that underpin the sci experience are discussed. First, drawing on a number of analytical concepts, the narrative identity dilemmas associated with interrupted body projects for sporting men are highlighted. Second, biographical data are utilized to illustrate the ways in which time is embodied and, in turn, framed and constructed within the restitution narrative as defined by Arthur Frank (1995). Third, utilizing the principles advocated by James Holstein and Jaber Gubrium (2000), we explore the manner in which coherence is constructed in the stories told. The methodology underpinning this project has been described in detail elsewhere (see Smith and Sparkes 2002, 2004, 2005a; Sparkes and Smith 2002, 2003). However, several points are worth mentioning again. Discussion in this essay is derived from data collected on fourteen Caucasian , heterosexual men who have all been heavily involved in rugby football union, and each of whom has experienced a sci through playing this contact sport. All were involved in confidential, thematic, life history interviews conducted in their homes by the primary investigator (Brett Smith). Each participant was interviewed at least twice over a one-year period. The total time interviewing each person ranged from seven to twenty-three hours. All interviews were tape-recorded, transcribed, and analyzed reflexively, utilizing multiple forms of narrative analysis (see Lieblich, Tuval-Maschiach, and Zilber 1998; Smith and Sparkes 2005b; Sparkes 1999, 2005). Theme One: Narrative Identity Dilemmas Prior to sci, the bodies of the participants, not uncommonly, were a largely absent presence in their lives. sci, however, shakes previous takenfor -granted assumptions about possessing a smoothly functioning body, drastically disrupting any sense of body–self unity and familiarity. At the same time, the body becomes the totality of the participants’ worlds. Thus, the body dysappears (see Leder 1990) and becomes inescapably embodied. As Jacob, who is forty-two years old and has been disabled for twenty-two years, said: “The body is there all the time; I can’t escape it; and yet I’m still surprised when I see my body in the mirror; I just don’t recognize it.” Furthermore, the majority of the men suggested that sci as a turningpoint moment led to devalued notions of themselves as people. In part, this was due to the rapid dissolution of five central aspects of their sense of self: the loss of the working body–self; loss of...

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