Exploring perceived risk of attending mass participation sport events

As part of a wider qualitative study regarding experiences of MPSEs, this research note explored perception of risk among Mass Participation Sport Events participants (MPSE). A qualitative inductive approach was adopted. Twenty-two (N=22) individuals who participated in MPSEs were interviewed and data were analyzed manually through thematic content analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2012). Open incident-to-incident coding, focused, and axial coding were utilized. The identified risk factors were found to fit in three themes: Physical risk - risk of physical injury; Environmental risk - external factors that threatened participants’ safety or impeded their ability to have their optimal performance; Psychological risk - anxiety. Findings address the gap in the literature on the perceived risk of participation in MPSEs and can be utilized by practitioners to increase safety of races and enhance participants’ experiences.