Eternal Youth. Gymnasts, Ageing and Body Narratives across Sport, Media and Post-Career Trajectories

Gymnasts, Ageing and Body Narratives across Sport, Media and Post– Career Trajectories

Authors

  • Ylenia Caputo University of Bologna

Keywords:

Gymnasts, Agency, Sport Heroines, Post-career, Ageing

Abstract

Gymnastics is a discipline that offers the possibility to explore the complex relationship between body, ageing and gender. Professional gymnasts, who reach the peak of their physical performance during adolescence, appear to undergo an anomalous alteration of the ageing process, shaped by both extrinsic elements (intense physical effort, strict dietary regimes, the use of pharmacological substances) and intrinsic ones (the natural biological metamorphosis). As is well known, the developmental phase, with the changes it entails – first and foremost the onset of menstruation – affects the athletes’ physical performance. Their young bodies are thus prematurely perceived, experienced and managed as if they were “old bodies”, generating a paradox that translates into concrete attempts to delay such ageing, through practices that, in fact, reverse the process and constrain gymnasts within a sort of “perpetual youth”, with all the associated physical, biological, psychological and even social implications. In exploring this phenomenon, reference will be made to the representations and narratives of gymnasts in the media, with a specific focus on the docu-series “Ginnaste – Vite Parallele” (MTV, 2011–2016) and the fiction “The Gymnasts” (“Corpo libero”, Rai2, 2023). Furthermore, exemplary figures in the discipline will be taken into account, such as Carlotta Ferlito in Italy and Simone Biles in the United States, who, as public and cross-media personalities, contribute to the redefinition of the female body and of ageing, in the sporting context and beyond.

Author Biography

Ylenia Caputo, University of Bologna

Ylenia Caputo, PhD, is Research Fellow at the Department of the Arts, University of Bologna, within the PRIN PNRR 2022 project CELEBR-AGE. Her research focuses on media theory, celebrity culture, and intergenerational studies. She is a teaching tutor for the Joint Master's Degree Programme in Scienze dello Spettacolo e della Produzione Audiovisiva. (University of Bologna/University of Salento). She serves as Journal Manager for ZoneModa Journal and as Editorial Assistant for Cinergie – Il Cinema e le altre Arti. She is the author of the monograph Italian Gen Z Celebrity. L’analisi delle celebrità teen nella produzione audiovisiva italiana contemporanea (Mimesis/Cinergie, Milano-Udine 2024).

Published

2025-07-01

How to Cite

Caputo, Y. (2025). Eternal Youth. Gymnasts, Ageing and Body Narratives across Sport, Media and Post-Career Trajectories: Gymnasts, Ageing and Body Narratives across Sport, Media and Post– Career Trajectories. Mediascapes Journal, 25(1), 98–113. Retrieved from https://rosa.uniroma1.it/rosa03/mediascapes/article/view/19103