Stories of Governance: Examining “Consensus” in the International Olympic Committee’s Consensus Statements on Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport

Policies to “protect” athletes, particularly women, are derived from contextual and unstable entanglements between sociocultural and biological considerations. This is especially demonstrated in relative energy deficiency in sport (REDs): a syndrome that occurs due to low energy availability and is influenced by environmental and societal factors. While sport organizations such as the International Olympic Committee have generated consensus statements to help with prevention, identification, and treatment of REDs, developing “consensus” remains a contentious issue given the syndrome’s multifactorial nature. Using a governmentality framework alongside Star and Griesemer’s concept of a “boundary object,” we analyze three International Olympic Committee consensus statements on REDs and interviews with five relevant experts to understand how “consensus” is developed. We identify three stories of governance (messy, flexible, and simplified) which, we argue, illustrate how multiple REDs-related epistemologies and ontologies are accommodated in the consensus statements, albeit with a push toward standardization and, ultimately, simplified governance.