Qualitative interview study reveals systematic misrecognition and bodily erosion in elite sparring partners, highlighting the human costs of achievement-centred athletic governance.
Key Points
To examine how sparring partners in China's whole-nation elite sport system experience invisible bodily labour, institutional misrecognition, and identity disruption.
Conducted in-depth life-history interviews with 12 current and former sparring partners (N=12) representing four sports across three Chinese provinces.
Theoretically framed narrative data using Honneth's recognition theory, Bourdieu's bodily capital, and Foucault's disciplined body to assess labour alienation and risk.
Identified a threefold framework of disrespect: bodily degradation dissolves self-trust, administrative exclusion damages self-respect, and systematic concealment of contributions undermines self-esteem.
Observed that accumulating experiences of institutional misrecognition create deep identity fractures, prompting sparring partners to construct alternative recognition strategies to sustain personal selfhood.