Post-humanism in the Olympic track: Pistorius/Semenya case studies and the re-definition of Sport

Abstract

Two recent polemic cases in the world of athletics (Pistorius and Semenya) will help us to show how post-humanism can be applied to sports in a fruitful way. The sport subjectivity of Semenya and Pistorius, far from being a given essence, is going to be built through the re-assembling of human and non human actors (Latour, 2005); the notion of tecno-biopower is going to have a special relevance during this process (Haraway, 1997). Such dynamic constitution of the subjectivity is going to affect, not only the definition of basic sport categories (olympic-paralympic;male-female), but the core principles of sport (competition equality and fair play) as well. The kind and degree of autonomy that the sport field maintains from society in general will be affected too.