Exploring challenges, support and structural barriers in Irish elite youth basketball: Perspectives from athletes and their support networks

While research on elite athlete wellbeing has grown considerably, less attention has been paid to how support is structured and experienced within smaller, under-resourced national sporting ecosystems. Social support appears imperative to high-performance athlete wellbeing, yet structural and relational factors shaping its provision remain understudied in non-Olympic sporting contexts. This study investigated how athletes on Ireland’s underage national basketball teams perceive and construe their experiences of social support and challenges, and how support network members perceived challenges