Lifestyle skiing contributes to health and eudaimonic well-being: an emergent Chinese lifestyle mobility‌

In an increasingly mobile society, a 'new mobilities paradigm' examining the connection between mobility and lifestyle is gaining prominence. However, it is realized that the current work on the conceptualization of lifestyle mobilities has yet to account adequately for the diversity in this emerging area. Echoing to the 'fluidity and malleability' of contemporary social phenomena, and in response to the academic interest on alternative mobilities with different velocity and rhythm, an emergent sport mobilities of lifestyle skiing is focused, and its relations with personal health and well-being are examined. Guided by Gatrell's therapeutic mobilities framework, exploration highlights how the construct incorporating the three components of activity, sociality and context is interconnected and further mobilised to shape well-being, under a eudaimonic perspective. Employing a constructivist qualitative research approach, in-depth interviews with skiers were carried out in Chongli district of Zhangjiakou city, one of the hosting places for 2022 Winter Olympics. The results show that, the determinants of autonomy, personal growth, positive relationship, environmental mastery, self-acceptance and purpose in life in the 'Psychological Well-Being Scale' are significant to influence well-being experience, while nature connection is proposed as a complementary critical determinant. Ultimately, mobilities is becoming a key element in the new-found empowerment to search for self in the recreational realm, and to escape from 'routine everyday life' in contemporary China. Theoretically, an exploratory conceptual framework of psychological well-being in lifestyle-sport mobilities is proposed. Practically, the findings are illuminated to suggest better practices that can foster the skiing industry and improve the individual skiing experience.