ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Sports Act. Living
Sec. Women in Sport
Abstract
Mountain biking is a male-dominated motion sport with variations in engagement reported between women and men. Motivation to take part in motion sports activities like mountain biking is influenced by social elements, together with social help. The function of social help inside motion sports activities has acquired little consideration and isn’t totally understood. One mannequin which will information our understanding of social help on this context is the Thriving by way of Relationships mannequin by Feeney and Collins (2015). In this mannequin, social help permits people to take benefit of life alternatives, in addition to managing challenges. The objective of this research was to discover girls mountain bikers’ experiences of social help throughout the mountain bike group, specializing in aim exploration, connections with different riders, and gender particular experiences. Twenty-two girls mountain bikers (ages 29-61) participated in semi-structured digital interviews lasting on common 51 minutes. Participants had various mountain bike expertise (newbie to skilled) and had been all from North America. Interviews had been transcribed verbatim and thematic evaluation was used to determine the primary themes reflecting the ladies’s experiences. Participants described mountain biking as “a community building sport,” with two foremost themes and a third minor theme recognized. Within the theme of the ladies’s group in a male dominated sport, members mentioned three subthemes: a) the game as male dominated with a lack of funding in girls, b) the creation of the ladies’s subcommunity, and c) the significance of giving again to the ladies’s group. In the second theme of discovering the fitting help group, three subthemes had been recognized: a) social help as perform of the group, b) using group concerns, and c) it is not nearly mountain biking. The third minor theme was associated to outsider help and involvement. Participants described that they might not be the place they’re with out receiving social help throughout the sport and mentioned how integral help has been to their mountain biking expertise. Overall, the findings emphasize the necessity to foster a supportive group for girls mountain bikers.
Summary
Keywords
Action sports, gender, Mountain Biking, social influence, social support, Women
Received
21 January 2026
Accepted
06 April 2026
Copyright
© 2026 Gore Rivero and Wilson. This is an open-access article distributed beneath the phrases of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or replica in different boards is permitted, offered the unique writer(s) or licensor are credited and that the unique publication on this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted tutorial observe. No use, distribution or replica is permitted which doesn’t adjust to these phrases.
*Correspondence: Kathleen S Wilson
Disclaimer
All claims expressed on this article are solely these of the authors and don’t essentially symbolize these of their affiliated organizations, or these of the writer, the editors and the reviewers. Any product which may be evaluated on this article or declare which may be made by its producer is just not assured or endorsed by the writer.