Abstract:

Abstract Founded on Oral History’s theoretical and methodological contribution, this essay talks about the participation of gymnasts from Rio Grande do Sul in the Olympic Games, focusing on their own narratives. The sources used are the interviews made with the seven gymnasts and other narratives that are related to the subject matter. The interviews were compared with other sources such as reports, books, academic articles and sports atlas. Content analysis was used as analytical tool, taking into consideration the stages of pre-analysis, exploration of empirical material and data processing. Using source crossing, we identified that the gymnasts started their sports careers in the school and were transferred to teams afterwards, where they had basic teaching of gymnastics, and to improve their performance, they migrated to other States. The participation in the Olympic Games was marked as a lifetime period in their careers, inscribing the gymnastics in their memories, histories and bodies. Author Biographies Natália Bender, University of Rio Grande do Sul Graduated in Physical Education. Master student od Human Movment Sciences Silvana Vilodre Goellner, University of Rio Grande do Sul Professor of the Physical Education department of University of Rio Grande do Sul References ALBERTI, Verena. História Oral: a experiência do CPDOC. Editora FGV, Rio de Janeiro, 1989.

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