The history of running in Argentina

Abstract

Modern capitalism lays the bases for the consolidation of new sports practices crossed by economic logics, globally expanded and singularly and locally appropriated. Running is one of them; although it has its roots in athletics –with which it shares spaces, techniques, practices and the passion for sport–, it assumes specific ways that make it emerge as an activity with its own dispositions, extended to almost non-restricted public. The objective of this article is to reconstruct the links between athletics and running in Argentina, to set their reciprocal influences and tensions, and to analyze the representations constructed from sports practices, with a focus on the current context, understanding that the body is a central element and that the market occupies a fundamental role in determining the “necessities” linked to consumption. To this end, I will reflect on my own fieldwork and interviews, and analyze a series of sources (specifically journalistic articles, magazines, videos and radio programs), in which this sporting activity is represented, or self-represented, as model/example of the new ideal of the individual and the body.