Body perceptions of young people from two sports clubs in Cundinamarca, Colombia
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47197/retos.v78.118305Keywords:
Body, perception, sport, youthAbstract
Introduction: During modernity, the concept of the body underwent profound transformations driven by industrial society and capitalist culture. In this context, the body in sports was configured based on performance and physical optimization.
Objective: To determine the body image perceptions of young people aged 11 to 14 years belonging to two sports clubs in Cundinamarca, Colombia.
Methodology: The study was qualitative with a narrative method. Body mapping and semi-structured interviews were used as research techniques. The instruments used were the guide questionnaire and the body workshop, applied to 22 young people from two sports clubs in Cundinamarca.
Results: The findings show that emotion is the central axis of athletes' body perception. Likewise, influenced by the sporting context, this makes the body the main vehicle through which subjects relate to the world and give it meaning. In addition, participants seek social validation of the body based on physical appearance and recognize ability as its main functional expression (centered on the legs and feet).
Conclusions: Young people's perceptions of their bodies are shaped in a space of constant negotiation between functional demands and subjective experience. The sporting context is consolidated as the main space for socialization, characterized by logic of performance and discipline, in which the body responds to parameters of capacity and physical appearance.
References
Babativa Salamanca, H. A., Rubiano Cárdenas, P. A., Velásquez Pérez, T., Gaona Diaz, N. F., González Ortega, J. A., & Vega Gámez, M. I. (2024). La entrevista semiestructurada: una herramienta pertinente en la percepción de valores sociales para la vida. Revista Lasallista De Investigación, 21(1). https://doi.org/10.22507/rli.v21n1a5
Barnsley, J. (2006). El cuerpo como territorio de la rebeldía (2a ed.). Universidad Nacional Experimental de las Artes (UNEARTE).
Barreu, J. J. y Morne, J. J. (1991). Epistemología y Antropología del Deporte. Alianza, Editorial S.A.
Bernard, M. (1980). El cuerpo. (1a ed.) Paidos.
Bertaux, D. (2011). El enfoque biográfico: su validez metodológica, sus potencialidades. Acta Sociológica, 1(56). https://doi.org/10.22201/fcpys.24484938e.2011.56.29458
Boaventura, P. & Vaz, A. (2020). Corpos Femininos Em debate: ser mulher na ginástica. Movimento, 26, e26005. https://doi.org/10.22456/1982-8918.90272
Boyezuk, A., & Galak, E. (2021). Armando cuerpos: Análisis de talleres de intervención con deportistas acerca de discursos sexo-generizados. Estudios Pedagógicos (Valdivia), 47(4). https://doi.org/10.4067/S0718-07052021000400061
Chetna Gupta, M., Shabana Azami, D., Rawat, D. A., Jha, D. K., Ahmad Dar, D. J., Konwar, D. D. J., & Vaid, M. S. (2025). Narrativas culturales en movimiento: una perspectiva sociocultural sobre la rehabilitación deportiva y la fisioterapia. Retos, 71. https://doi.org/10.47197/retos.v71.116937
Deng, X. (2024). ¿Cuál es la relación entre el cuerpo y el deporte?: Desde la fenomenología corporal de Merleau-Ponty y perspectiva filosófica. Trans/Forma/Acción Revista de Filosofía de la Unesp, 47(4), e0240053. https://doi.org/10.1590/0101-3173.2024.v47.n4.e0240053
Denzin, N. y Lincoln, Y. (2012). Introducción general. La investigación cualitativa como disciplina y como práctica. En N. Denzin y Y. Lincoln. Manual de investigación cualitativa Vol. I. El campo de la investigación cualitativa (pp. 43-102). Gedisa.
Doria N. & Numer, M. (2022). Dancing in a culture of disordered eating: A feminist poststructural analysis of body and body image among young girls in the world of dance. PLoSONE, 17(1), e0247651. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0247651
Fernández, F. (2002). EL análisis de contenido como ayuda metodológica para la investigación. Ciencias sociales, 96, 35-53.
Feixa, C. (1996). Antropología de las edades. En J. Prat y Á. Martínez (edit), Ensayos de antropología cultural. Homenaje a Claudio Esteva-Fabregat (pp. 319-334). Ariel S.A.S.
Galak, E. Zoboli, F., & Saliba Manske, G. (2020). Del cuerpo de la biología al cuerpo de la máquina: algunas consideraciones sobre el deporte. The Journal of the Latin American Socio-cultural Studies of Sport, 12(1). https://ri.conicet.gov.ar/handle/11336/146609
Hijós N. (2023). Hacer carrera. Un análisis etnográfico y biográfico sobre la performance de la masculinidad y la construcción de subjetividades contemporáneas en el entorno digital. Cuadernos de Relaciones Laborales, 41(2). https://doi.org/10.5209/crla.87882
Hours, G. (2020). Deporte escolar: lo médico, la ruptura con el conocimiento científico y su estrategia como parte del dispositivo de bio-poder. Revista Tempos e Espaços em Educação, 13 (32). https://doi.org/10.20952/revtee.v13i32.13218
Intezar, H. (2021). Speaking pictures, silent voices: Female athletes and the negotiation of selfhood. Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science, 55(1). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12124-020-09577-6
Kaczan, G., & González, A. (2021). Discursos, pedagogías y estereotipos en la natación femenina argentina a principios del siglo XX. Educación Física Y Ciencia, 23(2). https://doi.org/10.24215/23142561e169.
Le Bretón, D. (2002) La sociología del cuerpo (1ra ed.). Nueva visión
Le Breton, D. (2002). Antropología del cuerpo y modernidad (1a ed.). Nueva Visión.
Marín, J. & Muñoz, B. A. (2023). Representaciones sociales sobre cuerpo y sus concepciones en una facultad de educación física, recreación y deporte. Formación Universitaria, 16(2). https://doi.org/10.4067/S0718-50062023000200073
Meeuwsen, S. y Kreft, L. (2023). Sport and Politics in the Twenty-First Century. Sport, Ethics and Philosophy, 17(3). https://doi.org/10.1080/17511321.2022.2152480
Melo, V. A. (2019). El espectáculo que educa el cuerpo: Clubes atléticos en la ciudad de Niterói en la década de 1880. Revista de Historia de la Educación, 23(e85836). https://doi.org/10.1590/2236-3459/85836
Merleau-Ponty, M. (1993). Fenomenología de la percepción. Planeta Mexicana S.A.
Morano, M., Cataldi, S., Robazza, C., Ruiz, M. C., Fischetti, F., & Bortoli, L. (2020). Práctica deportiva tipificada por género, física y emociones en las adolescentes. Sustainability, 12(20). https://doi.org/10.3390/su12208518
Ornelas, M., Solís, O., Solano, N., & Rodríguez, J. M. (2020). Imagen corporal percibida en mujeres adolescentes deportistas y no deportistas. Retos, (37). https://doi.org/10.47197/retos.v37i37.72386
Pérez-Vargas, J. J., Nieto-Bravo, J. A., & Santamaría-Rodríguez, J. E. (2020). Hermeneutics and Phenomenology in Human and Social Sciences Research. Civilizar, 20(38). https://doi.org/10.22518/jour.ccsh/2020.1a10
Planella, J. (2006). Cuerpo, cultura y educación. Desclée De Brouwer
Pringle, R., & Liu, L. (2023). Mainland Chinese first-generation immigrants and New Zealanders’ views on sport participation, race/ethnicity and the body: Does sport participation enhance cultural understandings?. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 58(4). https://doi.org/10.1177/10126902231156278
Tinoco, A. Schneider, J., Haywood, S., & Matheson, E. (2023). “They are men, they will be looking even if you put on pants or a sweatshirt”: Girl athletes' and coaches' experiences of body image in Mexico City sport settings. Body Image, 46. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2023.05.002
Torras, M. (2007). El delito del cuerpo. De la evidencia del cuerpo al cuerpo en evidencia. En M. Torras (Coord.), Cuerpo e identidad. Estudios de género y sexualidad I (pp. 11–36). Ediciones UAB.
Woube, A. (2022). Dressed for success or undermining the achievement? Material culture of recreational sporting events for women in Sweden. Sport in Society, 26 (8). https://doi.org/10.1080/17430437.2022.2144723
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Karen Andrea Ojeda-Castaño, Carlos Andrés Carreño-Pirachican, César Alfonso Sánchez-Hernández, John Jairo García-Díaz
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and ensure the magazine the right to be the first publication of the work as licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of authorship of the work and the initial publication in this magazine.
- Authors can establish separate additional agreements for non-exclusive distribution of the version of the work published in the journal (eg, to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal.
- Is allowed and authors are encouraged to disseminate their work electronically (eg, in institutional repositories or on their own website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as to a subpoena more Early and more of published work (See The Effect of Open Access) (in English).
This journal provides immediate open access to its content (BOAI, http://legacy.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/boaifaq.htm#openaccess) on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge. The authors may download the papers from the journal website, or will be provided with the PDF version of the article via e-mail.
