Racing against age? Gender, age, and body among senior participants in women-only sports races

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate experiences and meaning-making of exercise and participation in races for women-only among Swedish senior women. Positioned within the framework of discourse theory, post-structuralism, and feminism, the article contains an analysis of how the intersection of gender, age, and the aging body affects articulations of meaning among senior participants in written accounts, interviews, and ethnographical fieldwork on women-only races in Sweden. The study shows that the senior women participate in women-only races in relation to (1) an aging, deteriorating body, (2) a health and exercise trend in Western society, (3) a desire for a single-gendered social context, (4) their own imagined physical (in)capability, (5) male-connoted capacities of physical strength, speed, and stamina, and (6) other senior female athletes who function as role models.