In this article, we present and examine the case of one elite athlete - 28-year old Mark (pseudonym), who during a 10-month lead-up to the 2016 Rio OG qualification deadline, aimed to achieve his NGB/NOC`s qualification standards, but sustained several injuries and was forced to give up his qualification attempt. Adopting a socio-narratological framework, we aim to understand how Mark storied the qualification period; how socio-cultural, organisational, and biographical contexts complicated his qualification and how he handled these complications; and how he made sense of not qualifying. Based on data produced through a longitudinal prospective study that included a background questionnaire, three semi-structured interviews, a weekly web survey, a training observation, and a compilation of competition results, our socio-narratological interpretations evidence that Mark aligned his athletic life to the `sport performance investment narrative`, but that this narrative provided limited resources to story poor competitive results and injuries. Instead, as Mark faced unexpected disruptions, he adopted a number of restitution strategies (e.g. alternative training/competition plans; positive thinking; rehabilitation) to re-align to the performance narrative. In so doing, Mark compromised injury recovery to worsen his performance and further injure his body, which eventually stopped his qualification process. After a directionless period and personal suffering, Mark again intended to follow the performance investment narrative. We propose that coaches, support staff and sport organisations recognise the pressurised nature of a qualification phase and provide support strategies to moderate instability and possible non-qualification.
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