How family can be crucial to the development of athletes in sport

Analysis: the supportive role of parents and siblings goes far beyond the provision of finance, travel and food

The role of family is acknowledged as an essential ingredient in the development of many athletes. You only have to rewind to last summer's Tokyo Olympics, and Irish cyclist Mark Downey, to see the potential impact of family. However, family involvement in sport is complex, the reasons for involvement vast and its impact varied, so we must tread carefully when assessing and declaring its value.

As the Downey example suggests, having a 'sporty family' has advantages. Aside from genetic influence, sporty parents can provide athletes with more knowledge of and easier access to sport. They’ve probably created pro-sport environments at home and participated with their children. Sporty siblings provide an organic laboratory for athletes to succeed, fail, experiment and ultimately learn. All of this provides athletes with a rich environment through which to pursue performance.

But this could also lead to negative consequences where athletes feel pressure to perform through parental expectation or sibling competition, and therefore lose interest or even drop out of sport. Importantly, there is no silver bullet to raising an athlete. AsJudy Murray shows, two talented siblings took very different pathways, requiring very different upbringings to succeed. As such, one size does not fit all.

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From RTÉ Radio 1's Ray D'Arcy Show, Olympic gold medallist Kellie Harrington's brother and