Resolution

Abstract

This chapter explores the ‘resolution’ stage of disgraced athletes’ self-narratives, in which they attempt to transcend the stigma of being labelled as a cheat, liar, doper and criminal. This resolution draws upon a ‘denial of the deviant self’ in which the narrators seek to demonstrate that they are now fundamentally changed and reformed, and so have put their past misdemeanours behind them. Representations of self-renewal and transformation into a ‘better person’ serve to separate the narrators from an identity that has been contaminated by stigma, and in doing so attempt to decisively draw a line under scandal and disgrace.