Thirteenth International Conference on Sport & Society

Abstract

The key purpose of this study is to explore female athletes’ perceptions of gender, sports, and Portuguese society. The study involves three female athletes who had long careers in Track and Field Throwing and have a middle-class background. By using unstructured interviews that lasted at least one hour and a half per athlete, different life perspectives were obtained to be analysed in the study. Categories were created to develop direct connections between the various transformations that occur during young female athletes’ development. Even though athletes’ stories differ from those who the male or female “judges”, there is still a general sense that the athletes are suffering and being judged by patriarchal society. As a consequence, increasing research in this field is critical for the elimination of sexualization-related repercussions, such as sexual harassment and abuse in sports.