Esportes competitivos no envelhecimento: estudo qualitativo de histórias e motivações

Abstract

Brazil is living a change in its demographic profile, and the population is reaching older ages. In this new context, new perspectives and needs are created. In light of this reality, the search for physical exercise and sports is increasingly more present with the elderly. Besides, it is believed that the competitive sport may bring benefits to the elderly, by allowing the competition not only against the adversary in the game, but also enabling experiences of new challenges, overcoming their own limits. AIM: To describe the life stories of elderly people that practice competitive sports and to explore the motivation of said practice. METHOD: It is a descriptive and explanatory study, of qualitative nature, that uses the narrative to describe and explore the life story of elderlies of 70 years old or older that practice competitive sports. The study was developed in the cities of Juiz de Fora, MG, and Santos Dumont, MG, and the participants were selected through the “snowball technique”. The data was collected through a semistructure interview and analysed using the Content Analysis methodology, of Bardin (2011). RESULTS: 23 elderlies that participate in the practice of competitive sports were interviewed, divided in the following way: 5 for street running, 3 for football, 12 for swimming and 3 for volleyball. Among the participants, 8 had their first encounter with the sport already during the childhood, however, the other 15 only started the practice when they were older. Furthermore, all of them reported the reasons that took them to the sports practice today. CONCLUSION: It was concluded that the majority of the elderlies initiated the competitive sports practice during the adult age, moreover, some facts had an impact in their life stories with the chosen sport.