Deporte, cuerpo y alimentación: un análisis sociohistórico de cuatro generaciones de deportistas

Abstract

In this work, the interaction between sport, eating practices, and body control are studied in four-generation Spanish female athletes, in all of them, three degrees of sport intensity are distinguished, from professional to amateur. A socio-historical approach is used, which allows us to see the process of the social construction of the body, since the post-civil war, when sports activity is experienced by women as a leisure activity and surrounded by food deficiencies, to today, where the performance has modified dietary patterns to achieve sports goals. It will also make visible the way in which dietary practices, body control, and sports norms are integrated into the daily life of women, even without being professional athletes. This work, carried out through qualitative research with in-depth interviews, shows how sports, food and body practices have altered over time, as well as their determinants, which are modified generationally. If in the first generation the material context is the one that determined the practices, during the stage of modernization, the situation is reversed. As the sports dimension takes centre stage and is integrated into the daily practices of women, it is observed how the processes of body construction are modified that are accompanied by changes in sports and eating behaviours.