(2018). The ‘physiologization’ of skiing: the lab as an obligatory passage point for elite athletes?. Sport in Society. Ahead of Print.
Slow on updates in the blog doesn’t mean slow on updates on the rest of the Internet! Doctor Daniel Svensson who defended at the Division in the end of 2016 and our Professor Sverker Sörlin recently got this article published: The ‘physiologization’ of skiing: the lab as an obligatory passage point for elite athletes?: Sport in Society: Vol 0, No 0
Abstract
In The Pasteurization of France, Bruno Latour argued that the rise of hygiene was dependent on collaboration between Pasteur, the hygiene movement, scientists and others. He also pointed at the importance of obligatory passage points such as the Pasteurian laboratory, to ensure the scientization and rationalization of hygiene. This article argues that there has been a similar process in elite sports, a ‘physiologization’ where scientists, sport organizations and specialized coaches have transformed training from a deeply personal and experiential matter to something universal and scientific. Physiologists made the test lab an obligatory passage point for athletes who wanted to compete on the highest level. Through theories of sportification and science and technology studies this paper analyses the scientization of endurance sports.