Co-Producing Endurance: Strava and the Construction of the Professional Endurance Athlete
2026-07-10
This article examines the role the performance-tracking app Strava plays in facilitating professional careers and engagement in a growing endurance sports industry. Through qualitative interviews with 25 elite endurance athletes and their agents, I find Strava establishes norms that define what it means to be a professional endurance athlete, compelling digital and embodied practices of professionalization and authenticity along platformed rationalities. However, athletes counter Strava’s logics through their affirmation, internalization, and resistance. When they perform on Strava, athletes engage in a form of socio-technical dialogue with the platform infrastructure that co-produces what it means to be a professional endurance athlete, as well as the ground rules for the endurance sports media market. While the increasing importance and popularity of Strava datafies and commodifies a sporting milieu previously known for its anti-commercial ethos, athletes’ engagement with the platform reveals that Strava also enables sustainable careers in an increasingly viable industry.