Abstract:
Australian Swimming functions on meritocratic principles as athletes are immersed in a culture that focuses on achievement. Meritocratic principles are accompanied by a technocentric ideology where a ‘swimmer body’ is a commodity “viewed as an instrument and object for manipulation” (Baine, 1990, p.29) in order to achieve success. This paper focuses on swimming as a social practice. My experiences as an Australian Swimming representative reveal how my body was viewed as a malleable object that was trained and manipulated to a perceived ideal for the sake of performance. As a consequence, I began purging (and complying) my body in an attempt to conform to an idealistic shape set by Australian team managers and coaches and other social regulators.