The legacy of sports regulations. Diagnosis and consent in the female category eligibility

Abstract

The sports regulations to define the eligibility in the female category are old policies, dating from the beginning of the 20th century, which go through disputes over the body, its inscriptions and possibilities for the future. In this sense, the definition of a diagnosis, with its articulations of health, disease and therapeutic care, concentrate some significant attributes for this eligibility. Following a bit of the history of former Brazilian judoka Edinanci Silva, we’ll understand how such regulations constitute normative strategies for controlling the body, the population, as well as mobilizing the scenarios in which the subjects exist, individualize and take care of themselves. This difficult task of consenting in a context of crisis, risk and humiliation says a lot about the limits of these same inclusions by sport. In the end, we’ll also understand why female virilization continues to be medicalized and matters more than the efficiency of sports performance itself.