The interview data are part of a larger research project, Who is Excluded from Gender Equality in Elite Sport: A Transdisciplinary Study of Generational Culture Shifts in Sporting Ambition, Parenting, and Identity (SportEX). This dataset consists of life story interviews exploring the precarity of work and systemic inequalities in Finnish elite sport. Participants include athletes, coaches, experts, and sport leaders representing diverse social positions—including gender identity, sexuality, race and ethnicity, parental and migrant status. Before the interview, participants were invited to complete a short demographic questionnaire (e.g., age, sport involvement, gender identity, sexual orientation) to indicate the areas they were open to discuss in the life story interview. This approach aimed to create a safer space for participants to exercise choice and privacy over sensitive disclosers. Participants then co-constructed narratives with the researcher on experiences of precarity, equity, and cultural shifts in sport, focusing on gender, intersectionality, parenting, and generational change. They were also invited to share personal objects of significance to engage with material-discursive aspects of their identities and sporting lives. The dataset comprises interviews with 10 participants (7 self-identified women, 3 self-identified men, aged 24–61), each interviewed twice between autumn 2023 and summer 2025. Interview durations ranged from 56 minutes to 1 hour and 39 minutes, with an average length of 86 minutes. Interviews were conducted in Finnish and English based on participant preference. All interviews were transcribed and translated as needed, with attention to preserving contextual and affective meaning. Participants reviewed and approved any quoted material to be used in publications to ensure contextual integrity and emotional safety. The study is grounded in critical feminist methodology and cultural praxis, shaped by the researchers’ intersectional positionality and commitment to care, reflexivity, and relational ethics.

2025