Between the Confrontation and the Concession: The Identities of Brazilian Olympic Female Athletes
Marcio Antonio TRALCI FILHO, Katia RUBIO

Abstract
The aim of this study is to analyze the construction of the Brazilian Olympic athletes’ identity both in the Olympic scenery as in the Brazilian social context, based on the life stories of the protagonists of these events. The history of the relationship between women and sport in Brazil is marked initially by prohibitions and regulations, maintain the subterfuge of maternal attributes and subsequently by an exaltation of the female body in its sensual aspects. Thus, women's sport has continued to be a field of male mediation. Narratives of Olympic athletes, confronted with the theoretical framework of cultural studies, specifically the work of Stuart Hall on the identity in post-modernity, indicate that, despite the growing inclusion of women in various sports, this has not been a rethinking of the social roles of men and women in sport. Draws attention that this inclusion was not as confrontational as in other countries, keeping relations with the Brazilian feminist movement's history. So many athletes have a speech supporting a separation between athlete's life and life as a woman, holding that, although they are athletes, they not ceased to be a woman. The athletes affirm a sense that they are uncomfortable standing on a male-dominated field.

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