Midiatic narratives of aging and sports performance: the defeat in the 1986´s world cup.

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to discuss the representation of the process of aging and old age in the professional sport’s field. To do so we chose to explore the discourse produced by the media to evaluate the performances of the Brazilian players in the 1986’s World Cup defeat. Therefore we point out a particular way of observing, constructing and presenting the process o aging: a one that begins at the age of thirty years old. In this particular case that we are addressing, the process of aging is attached to the category “barrier of the thirty years” which is a category of accusation and a stigma, despite of its fluidity and the need of constant negotiation by the actor’s discourses when he is labeled veteran. In the narratives and debates of the sport’s media, analyzed on the Estado de Minas and Folha de São Paulo Journals and on the Placar and Veja magazines through out January 1985 to august 1986, old age is represented in plural ways through three contiguous moments: one year after the World Cup – in the qualifying and preparatory games – during e after the World Cup – when the accusations lay on the losers. In those moments old age is depicted in one hand as physical decline, decadence, slowness and failure and in other hand is associated with experience, wisdom, wit, self-control. These ambiguous representations turn out to be connected with the player’s performances and the final results of the matches. Keywords: aging process, sports performance, representation, discourses