Speaker
Description
In the absence of epidemiological evidence, the facts suggest that the involvement in high-level sport has many harmful effects on the health of athletes, in particular the construction of an identity based solely on performance, the deterioration of physical integrity and mental health, the "lost childhood syndrome" and the incitement to resort to sports doping. I will question the particular socialization experienced by athletes leading them to play the "game of overcoming limits", to the detriment of their health. This will lead me to consider the dynamics of the sports field (in Bourdieu’s sense) and the key role of performance (both physical and mental) which emerges as the dominant symbolic capital. An overview of the Olympic ecosystem suggests that the various stakeholders of this ecosystem participate in the construction and maintenance of the power of this symbolic capital, which is exacerbated in the context of neoliberalism. The Olympic ecosystem thus turns out to function as a multisectoral multinational which produces a "reality show" broadcast worldwide and whose artists (athletes) are exploited (unpaid and actively participating in this situation) for the benefit of the sale of an image of virtues where performance takes precedence over health. The question is then raised: Are the Olympic athletes instrumentalized (to the detriment of their health) without their knowledge or are we faced with an expression of governmentality as defined by Foucault as a method of social control that operates on autonomous individuals willfully regulating themselves in the best interest of the governing authorities?
