Une expérience singulière

Abstract

Sport is in question here, probably in its dimension most valued by the media : the reconversion of high level athletes (HLA). Generally, the speech is laudatory and praises the successful reconversion of the most famous HLA. But behind the glorious results and the media coverage lurks a darker side : the precarious situation of former athletes, which remains a taboo subject. Yet examples are not lacking and readily upset a good many commonly held notions on the social success of HLA. However, the question of “after sport” often proves crucial and arduous for athletes in non-professional or less media saturated sports or, quite simply, for those who had made no plans and who were forced to end their careers unexpectedly, due to an injury, for example. The social disqualification (Paugam, 1991) is that much more painful to live through inasmuch as that marginalization process marks the end of their exceptional status and is accompanied by the construction of a negative identity when the athlete experiences difficulties in professional reinsertion. Due both to the “in-group” ambiance characterizing it and the attention paid to those who succeed, high level sport, whether professional or not, media saturated or not, leaves one unprepared for resisting stigmatism and a drab identitary dimension (Heinich, 1999) finds a “negatively” perfect example here.