‘The gym is an island’ forced migration and youth sports: a case study of a Ukrainian youth basketball coach

Research on and about forced migration in sport has examined methodological, ethical and practical issues. However, it is rare to have real time accounts of how athletes and coaches navigate sports and sporting cultures during a period of forced migration. This research offers a single longitudinal case study to examine the experiences of a Ukrainian youth sport coach and her team who were forced to migrate to Latvia after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Over two years, we conducted nine interviews with the coach alongside ethnographic observations. This case offers nuanced insights regarding (1) the drastic role changes a youth coach could undergo if continuing their sport-related activity during a period of forced migration and (2) the advantageous role of sport for youth athletes during such times. This case highlights the importance of resilience and argues for the importance of intersectional analyses in cases of forced migration and war. This case also directly addresses extant literature gaps for longitudinal, case study, and creative non-fiction research.