From Amateurism to Professionalism: Sport’s Transformations by the Brazilian Olympic Athletes’ Lenses

Abstract

Among the various marks that Olympic sports went through along the last century, the transformation of amateurism into professionalism was one of them. Seen, in the beginning, as one of the main Olympic movement´s pillars, amateurism was overcome by the contemporary sport´s dynamics. It became professional, changing not just the sport´s institutions but also the athletes´ careers, athletes who are the sporting spectacle´s protagonists and also the Olympic Games´ reason to be. The current work aims to present how Brazilian Olympic Athletes´ career professionalization process happened, as well as how it took place in sport´s by the end of last century. Thus, life histories narratives were used as methodology. It is observed, in such narratives, that throughout amateurism, searching for a new career was a normal condition to all athletes. Yet, professionalization did not happen as a national sport´s policy, what meant the development of some modalities, but not the development of sports as a whole