Respect for the not said in narratives of LGBTQIA+ Olympic sport athletes

Abstract

This article aims to discuss some forms of silencing experienced by LGBTQIA+ athletes in Olympic sport. Escaping from an official Olympic history that, in most cases, excludes these experiences, we will bring the biographical narratives of participants from different Olympic editions to explore the theme. In addition to highlighting our understanding of the application of this method to the LGBTQIA+ population, we have separated the text into two other parts. In the first one, we discuss the abyss between freely narrating one’s own experiences and the social atmosphere violent, dehumanizing and stereotyped that prevents certain issues (in particular that of the so-called self-assertion of identity) from emerging from LGBTQIA+ narratives. Soon after, we highlight how the Olympic regiments place athletes in subordinate conditions at the same time that they depreciate any political actions. To end the article, we will consider the concealment of issues related to the LGBTQIA+ experience as a vestige of the processes of censorship and/or trauma experienced throughout the athletic career, and no less a response to contemporary media exaggeration and its profit from speculation.