2025–Present | Research Leadership & Framework Development
PhD Researcher— Ethics in High-Performance Sport
Leeds Beckett University
Lesley McKenna completed her PhD in 2025 (and will defend in early 2026) examining how meaning, creativity, and ethical practice are sustained in high-performance action sports environments.
Her doctoral research led to the development of the Risk-Aesthetic Framework, based on three years of qualitative research with 74 elite athletes, coaches, judges, and performance leaders across snowboarding, freeskiing, skateboarding, surfing and with traditional sport athletes, coaches and coach developers. The framework explains how high-risk, aesthetic sports maintain motivation, community, and excellence beyond medal outcomes—and helps us understand what action sports and traditional sports can learn from each other as well as how high-performance sport systems can better integrate action sports.
Current focus:
Translating research into applied tools for coaches, organisations, and event systems
Advising on ethical performance design in Olympic and high-performance contexts
Supporting cultural sustainability in action sports pathways
2020–Present | Research, Coaching & Community Development
High-Performance Coaching Consultant
Specialising in:
Culture-led performance environments
Coach education and reflective practice
Aligning performance systems with athlete values
Founder — Wandering Workshops CIC
A community-interest organisation delivering backcountry ski touring and splitboarding education for local communities. Wandering Workshops reflects a commitment to access, environmental respect, and meaningful participation beyond competitive sport.
Impact:
Bridging academic insight with lived practice—supporting athletes and coaches to perform well without losing what makes the activity worth doing.
2018–Present | Governance, Ethics & System Leadership
FIS Park & Pipe Committee — Member
Contributing to international policy and decision-making in freestyle snowboarding and freeskiing.
Vice Chair — Classification Advisory Group (Snowboard & Freeski, Paralympics)
Chair — Cairngorm Mountain Trust
Impact:
Deep organisational insight into how rules, classifications, judging systems, and governance structures directly shape athlete experience, inclusion, and cultural integrity.
2014–2022 | National Team Leadership
GB Park & Pipe Team Manager
As Team Manager, Lesley oversaw Britain’s snowboard park and pipe programme during a period of rapid Olympic and commercial expansion.
This role revealed the system-level tensions between:
Creativity and standardisation
Athlete-led culture and medal-driven performance models
Long-term engagement and short-term results
These experiences became a critical foundation for her later research.
1998–2006 | Elite Athletic Career
Three-Time Winter Olympian
Salt Lake City 2002
Torino 2006
Vancouver 2010
Historic Firsts & Achievements
First British athlete to compete in Olympic snowboarding
Multiple World Cup podiums
First British snowboarder to win a FIS World Cup (halfpipe)
Pioneer in the development of UK snowboarding
Competing during snowboarding’s early Olympic integration, Lesley experienced firsthand the collision between risk-aesthetic culture and traditional sport structures—long before these tensions were formally studied.
Lasting insight:
Athletes often remember how a run felt more vividly than where they finished.
Why This Work Exists
After three Olympic Games and years managing Britain’s snowboard programme, one question kept returning:
What makes high-performance sport worth doing when you don’t win?
Lesley observed athletes describe non-podium sessions as “the best day ever.” She watched competitors celebrate each other’s breakthroughs more than their own medals. She noticed that what sustained long-term engagement wasn’t only results or winning—it was something athletes consistently called stoke.
Traditional sport research couldn’t fully explain this:
Performance psychology focused on motivation to win or achieve a personal best
Sociology examined power and commercialisation
Philosophy analysed games and competition
But few asked a more fundamental question:
What if high-performance sport is valuable for reasons that standard performance models don’t measure?
The Risk-Aesthetic Framework was developed to answer that question—providing a language for understanding performance that includes creativity, community, risk, and meaning alongside excellence.