The new Olympian and its’ sacred devices
Abstract_This paper seeks to investigate how athletes deal with their sport-self construction. To
do so, a multi-method approach, with visual and textual data, is employed in a hermeneutical
analysis. Preliminary findings from athletes from different sports show that they often have a
magical (believes of supernatural power in the equipments) or rational (a reliance in the
technological features of the device) world-view, and this influences the relationships between
the athlete and their sport apparel. Results also show that the athletes possess a fragmented self,
divided at least in their sport-work time, and their personal-leisure time.
Our contemporary society is arguably facing new contexts, characterized by the post-modern
conditions (Baudrillard, 1994; 1996; Brown, 1999; Debord, 1995; Firat & Venkatesh, 1995;
Jameson, 1991; Maffesoli, 1988; 1990) which in turn reflects in who the Olympic athlete is.
While different papers studied the relationship between postmodernity and self construction in
“normal” individuals, few or none dealt with athletes. The idea to study athletes comes because
they, as other persons, are in their working place most time of their day (Tian & Belk, 2005), but
while the “normal workers” have spare time in the weekend, athletes normally compete at this
time, making them to represent most time, theoretically, the work-self. With the intention to
study how the subjects deal with their sport-self construction, this work will rely on the
theoretical bases developed by Sartre (1943) and Belk (1988). For both authors, the most
important aspect of the construction of the self is having objects, where it is stated that you are
what you have and you have what you are. To achieve this objective, this work uses a
multi-method approach (Mason, 2006), where visual data (pictures of the sport apparel) were
used in a visual elicitation process (Heisley & Levy, 1991), and together with the textual data
(transcriptions of the interviews), were then employed in a hermeneutical analysis (Arnold &
Fischer, 1994; Thompson, 1997; Thompson, Pollio & Locander, 1994). The interviews happened
in different places, ranging from the athletes’ house, to the athletes’ training place. It lasted an
average of one and a half hour, and dealt mainly with the history as a person, history as an
athlete and the history of their sport apparel, constructing a cultural biography of the possessions
(Kopytoff, 1986; Löfgren, 1990). Athletes from different sports disciplines who competed at
least at the Pan-American Games level for the Brazilian Team were contacted to be part of this
research.
Preliminary findings from the hermeneutical analysis show that athletes often have a magical or
rational world-view, and this influences the relationships between the athlete and their sport
apparel, and also with their different fragments. Firstly, it was seem that this individuals are a
fragmented self, arguably a post-modern condition (Firat & Schultz, 2001; Firat & Venkatesh,
1995), divided in a work-self (athlete-self) and a personal-self, being such a fragmentation
already documented in other research (Tian & Belk, 2006). The results that follow are excerpts
taken from two different athletes that could be considered cases of the two different world-views.
Claudia is a 26-year old female wrestler, which competed for the first time internationally in the
Rio de Janeiro’s Pan-American Games 2007. She comes from a very catholic country side town
in a south Brazilian state, and lives now in the state capital. After practicing different sports in
her youth, she turned to combat sports, training Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ) first and after changing
to wrestling in 2006. Participating in her first tournament in wrestling without any training, she
classified for the Brazilian Championship, where, then, she placed second (with just three
specific training). Claudia is an example of an athlete who was a magical world-view,
predominantly deterministic (Tian & Belk, 2006). In relation to her possessions, she believes that
they have special powers, that came from the divine, and are considered supernatural lucky
charms and amulets (Tian & Belk, 2006; Belk, Wallednrof & Sherry, 1989; Kover, 1998; Tian &
Belk, 2005), which help her to perform better in wrestling (Belk, 2003; Csikszentmihalyi &
Rochberg-Halton, 1981). One example is that she still uses, to compete, a bikini that had some
medallions that were attached by her mother while she competed in BJJ, as well as her first
competition top. She also present in her sport-self is the Brazilian religious syncretism (Da
Matta, 1979), represented in the fact that she uses candomblé, catholicism and Buddhism to
protect her sport apparel from evil powers.
In the other hand, Juliana, a 26-year old female sailor, represents the rational world-view (Tian &
Belk, 2006). She is an international athlete, having already competed in two Olympic Games,
considering herself as a professional athlete. In contrast to Claudia, Juliana has no possessions in
her sport-self that have supernatural or metaphysical powers, what makes her to rely on the
scientific aspect of the object. She prefers to use, and have, objects (i.e. suits, boats, and sail) that
help her to perform better, through the physical qualities that they have. As she notes, this
no-superstition aspect was developed through the years of competition, where in the beginning
she was more worried of what she used or bought. What can be said about her relationships with
her objects is that they are considered as prostheses (Belk, 1988; Tian & Belk, 2005;
Csikszentmihalyi & Rochberg-Halton, 1981); they help her achieve her objectives and are used
with this intent. The help that her sports apparel gives her is physical; there are not any magical
aspects to them. If a suit is good, it is not because of her relationship with the suit, or because she
won one time with it. It is good because it is made with a good fabric; there is high technology
in it, denoting a belief in science, a modern culturally constructed marketplace myth in the words
of Kniazeva & Belk (2007).
The construction of this new Olympian departs from the two distinct world-views, gaining
influences from science and quantification as well as from magic power. It is one more fragment
that the post-modern subject can incorporate. Following, the new Olympian has a syncretism in
his (or her) beliefs. If modern sport is characterized as rationalized and quantified (Guttmann,
2004), characteristics that are related to science, the same could not be said about the
contemporaneous athlete who also believes in religion and magic. Post-modernity allows the
syncretism of beliefs for athletes, and also allows that elite sports have magical and metaphysical
aspects, not only secular and scientific ones, bringing back some aspects (in a retro movement)
from the ancient Olympic Games.
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