Inspirational Olympic Stories: Exploring the Impact of Athlete Identity Framing and Superordinate Identity on Feelings of National Identity, Elevation, Admiration, and Grit

Major sporting events like the Olympics serve as symbolic arenas for national identity construction and emotional engagement. This two-study experimental investigation examined how media portrayals of Olympic athletes influence audience responses depending on the framing of intended inspirational audience and athlete identity. Grounded in social identity theory and the common ingroup identity model, Study 1 (n = 139) tested whether framing an athlete as aiming to inspire a superordinate national audience (i.e. “young Americans”) versus a specific subgroup (i.e. “young Latinos”) influenced readers’ feelings of national identity, elevation, and grit. Study 2 (n = 157) tested whether identifying an athlete as “American” versus “Mexican-American” affected admiration and grit. Results from Study 1 indicated that superordinate identity framing elicited higher national identity, elevation, and grit, while results from Study 2 showed that identifying an athlete according to a superordinate identity was associated with higher levels of admiration, with admiration mediating the relationship between identity framing and grit. These findings demonstrate that emphasizing inclusive national identities in media narratives fosters more positive emotional and motivational responses among audiences. Implications are discussed regarding the role of inspirational sports media in shaping collective identity and promoting prosocial emotional experiences during major international events.