CHAPTER 10 Interview In the past nine chapters, we have looked at many forms of sports tourism security. We have also examined many of the issues surrounding sports and athletic travel. We have viewed these issues from both academic and business perspectives, and we have examined issues of safety and security and the ways in which they intertwine. This chapter is different. Rather than writing about the athletes, the chapter gives voice to the athletes, allowing them to speak for themselves. It is fair to say that most famous athletes have the luxury of additional security. For this reason, this chapter focuses on athletes who are not famous (or are no longer are famous), because they represent the vast majority of athletes and are the norm, rather than the exception to the rule. The athletes chosen for this chapter represent a broad spectrum representing how athletics touch many people’s lives. They, like most athletes, are ordinary people who are not household names, but rather, individuals who love sports and live lives simi- lar to most people. Some of the athletes interviewed are still active in their sport; others are now retired. Taken together, they weave a representative tapestry of the average athlete. Their story is not about the athletic elite, but rather reflects the “ath- lete” found deep within each of us. METHODOLOGY Since this chapter is different from the other chapters, it begins with a meth- odological section. In reality, developing a methodology is a challenge, as there is no single definition of who is or is not an athlete. In the end, an ath- lete is a person who proclaims that she or he is an athlete. Furthermore, the number of people who participate in athletic activities is so large, and the types of sports practiced by athletes so broad, that no one image of an athlete comes to mind when we use the word. These variations, both within the term and within the types of sports practiced by athletes, created multiple meth- odological issues. On the one hand, a statistical quantitative methodology 245 Sports Travel Security. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-805099-6.00010-5 © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 246 CHAPTER 10: Interview would require the distribution of a large sample size of questionnaires. The questionnaires would then have to be broken down into so many sub- categories (e.g., team sports vs individual sports, by gender, and by profes- sional vs amateur status) that statistical analysis would become meaningless. Additionally, unless thousands of questionnaires were distributed, it would be almost impossible to conduct a scientific (assigning of a p-value) survey, especially as there is no one, universally accepted definition of the statisti- cal universe. Even if thousands of questionnaires were distributed, the survey would still have been nothing more than a convenience sample rather than a systematic sample. In order to allow athletes to express themselves freely, the quantitative approach was replaced with the qualitative. The qualitative approach, although not scientific, allows for a broad spectrum of reported activities and demonstrates the wide variety within the world of athletics. What follows in this chapter is a series of vignettes representing different sports and athletes at different stages of their lives. To capture these vignettes, open-ended questionnaires/interview guides were distributed, and then fol- low-up calls were made, or face-to-face meetings were held. The interview guides were developed in both English and Spanish. The guide was first written in English and then pretested to be sure that the Spanish ver- sion reflected not only the question, but also the spirit of the question, and culturally made sense. The cultural part of any translation is almost always the hardest part. For example, the simple question: “How many people are in your family?” in English, usually refers to a person’s nuclear family, while the same question in Spanish tends to refer to the extended family. To avoid con- fusion, the interview guide (questionnaire) was distributed about one week prior to the follow-up conversation. The book’s author translated the answers of those athletes who answered in a language other than English. The English translation was then returned to the athlete so that she or he could verify that the translation expressed his or her views accurately. Athletes were also asked to sign a release form so that no athlete’s name appears without expressed, written permission. Since sports tend to be universal, and both university and professional ath- letes, like the population at large, are not homogeneous, it was also impor- tant to take into account the following factors: ■ Age of athlete. ■ Amount of time spent on the road. ■ Athlete’s civil status. ■ Athlete’s financial situation. ■ Athlete’s gender. ■ Athlete’s level of religiosity. ■ Athlete’s religion. The Interview Guide 247 ■ Athlete travels as part of team. ■ Athlete’s travel patterns. ■ Cultural factors. ■ Legal factors. This list is not meant to be extensive or complete, but rather, it provides us with an entrance into the complexity of the situation. Thus, although some patterns may be recognized across cohorts, reality dictates that we view each athlete as a single and unique individual. Found below are the stories of several athletes. They are representative of all athletes, and yet, no two are the same. Each athlete has a unique story, and yet each has similarities with his or her colleagues. As we read the tale that each sportsman or woman tells us, we learn how each one provides us with insights into the world of travel for the professional or university athlete. All athletes received the same questions, yet each answered in his or her own way. Every athlete was encouraged to tell his or her personal story in a way that reflected him or herself. Often, the questions asked sparked additional comments or recollections, and these, too, were recorded. Each person is unique, but all of us will recognize something of ourselves in the other. The following questions, however, were posed to each athlete, either in English or Spanish. Some soccer players were more comfortable in Portuguese than in English or Spanish, and they were permitted to answer in their native tongue. The author translated the Portuguese commentaries into English. THE INTERVIEW GUIDE The interview guide consisted of the following questions. The Spanish guide, found at the end of this chapter, is not an exact word-for-word translation, but rather reflects cultural differences and assumptions. Verbiage was changed to elicit the same cultural response as in the English language guide. ■ Please tell me your name and current age. ■ What professional or university sport(s) did you/do you play? ■ In what years did you play this (these) sport(s)? ■ Did you play only university sports? ■ Did you play only pro sports? ■ Did you play on both university and professional team? ■ When playing sports, did you travel? Only answer these questions if you played (or are playing) university sports: ■ Would you describe your travel experiences as a university athlete as positive or as a hassle? 248 CHAPTER 10: Interview ■ What three things did you like about travel as a university athlete? ■ What three things did you dislike about travel as a university athlete? ■ Were your professors supportive of your absences while on the road? ■ Did your travel negatively impact your formal education? ■ Did travel help you bond with your teammates? ■ Did you share a room when on travel or have your own room? ■ Did you go into the locale when visiting? ■ Did you see yourself more on short vacation experience or on a business trip? ■ Did you have fun while on travel? ■ Were you under a guardian’s supervision? ■ Did you ever have any safety concerns while away? ■ Did you ever have any security concerns while away? ■ If you could have changed two things about your sports travel experience, what would they have been? ■ What three things would you recommend to a freshman athlete about being on the road while at school? ■ What else should I have asked you that I failed to ask? If you played or are playing in a professional sport, then answer these questions: ■ For the most part, would you describe your travel experiences as a professional athlete as positive or as a hassle? ■ How is professional athletic travel different from university athletic travel? ■ What three things did you like about travel as a professional athlete? ■ What three things did you dislike about travel as a professional athlete? ■ Was your family supportive of your absences? ■ If not married, was travel a positive or negative factor in your social life? ■ If married or a single parent, did your travel negatively impact your home situation? ■ Did travel help you bond with your teammates? ■ Did you share a room when on travel or have your own room? ■ When not playing ball, when on the road did you go into the locale when visiting or did you or just stay at the hotel? ■ Did you see away games as more of a short vacation experience or more as being on a business trip? ■ Did you have fun while on out-of-town travel? ■ Were you under a security guard’s supervision? ■ Did you ever have any safety concerns while on sports travel? ■ Did you ever have any security concerns on sports travel? ■ What three things would you recommend to a new professional athlete about being on the road? Hector Enrique Amador Ruiz: Professional Soccer Player 249 ■ If you could have changed two things about your sports travel experience, what would they have been? ■ What else should I have asked you that I failed to ask or would you like to tell me? THE NARRATIVES Below, the reader will find a number of narratives.