Women and risk sports: Diving into the universe of apneístas

Abstract

This study of qualitative nature aims at investigating, from a Social Imaginary perspective, the senses of limit, risk and body are for the women who practice apneic diving. The experience of this extreme risk practice is deliberately chosen by informants. Our intentionally selected sample was made up of eight women who practice the sports. The method applied for the interpretation of those speeches was Orlandi's Discourse Analysis (1987, 1993, 1999). We have worked with the interpretation of words that emerge from the Idea Association (ABRIC, 1994) technique. Nine semantic groups were organized around a group of common associations and another group of uncommon associations. The divers who go down great depths know that the practice of that sport of high risks challenges their body limits, and they must be careful not to go beyond those limits. They must extend them. That concern seems to be present in the experience of that boundary between life and death.