"Running bodies" under the lens of Michel Foucault

The article is devoted to the study of the formation of the "social body" of a runner athlete by means of anatomical and biopolitics, the concepts of which were developed by M. Foucault. The author solves such tasks as explication of the types and features of disciplinary practices used in the training of athletes specializing in running sports; analysis of the manifestations of resistance and transgression of runners; research of ethical self-transformation of athletes within the framework of Fucoldian "technologies of self"; identification of some urgent and emerging problems of running sports related to the relationship of power, control, body and knowledge. The paper also attempts to give applied importance to the Fucoldian interpretations of power relations in the interaction of "coach ‒ athlete" in order to problematize anatomical and political power and disciplinary practices used within its framework, which is important for the development of subjectivity and expanding the possibilities of realizing the potential of both an athlete and a coach. The research methodology is based on a conceptual analysis of M. Foucault's theoretical legacy and the reception of the French philosopher's ideas by Russian and Western scientists. The author identifies the main discourses that have the greatest impact on the training of athletes-runners (documents expressing state policy in the field of sports; texts of academic science; sports periodicals; popular science texts, as well as films, fiction, legends, etc.); analyzes the "disciplinary tools" of the sports training process (training plans exercises, specific organization of time and space, "hierarchical observation", "normalizing judgments", "recognition", "exam"); types of resistance and transgression of runners are revealed; the mechanism of work of athletes-runners on themselves within the framework of M. Foucault's "technologies of self" in order to improve their quality as an ethical subject is investigated; Fucoldian interpretations of some actual and potential problems of running sports are given, contributing to their deeper understanding (running addiction; strengthening control over runners using technical means; eugenics and neo-eugenics; cyborgization of athletes; doping as a component of anatomical and biopolitics; authoritarian coaching practices).

the philosophy of sports, running, anatomopolitics, biopolitics, power, transgression, disciplinary practices, cyborgization, doping, coach