Sports and bodies: An exploration of bodily inscription

Sport is an integral aspect of contemporary society; it is also a political, economic, educational, religious and scientific activity. The body and embodied experiences are central to the practice of sport. This research is concerned with both the embodied nature of sport and the potential for sport to mirror, and channel, discourses from wider society. Drawing from the fields of sports geography, bodily geography, and relevant literature from sports studies, the notion of bodily inscription through sport is the focus of this report. Using Henning Eichberg’s sports trialectic and the wider concept of body culture bodily inscription is mapped via the different characteristics of sport associated with branches of the trialectic; achievement, fitness and body experience. The work of Eichberg also adds another dimension to this analysis - the comparison between sport, democracy and varying iterations of society.