Download - Sports In Brazil

English forewords and review
Research mainstreams of studies
on environment, sport,
leisure and tourism in Brazil
within the period 1967-2007
Ana Maria Miragaya, PhD
Universidade Gama Filho, Rio de Janeiro
Sports and environment have been historically related through the following
perspectives: (i) the environment as agent - acting on the participant’s body
causing physical performance loss (example: excessive heat); (ii) sports as source
of pollution – or even destruction – (example: winter sports in natural
environment), and (iii) sports as agent - participants as environment guardians
(example: surfers protecting local beaches). Although research tradition on human
physical impairment due to hostile climate conditions started in Brazil in 1850, it
was only in the 1960s that sports became part of scientific investigations that
brought successful results such as Brazil’s conquest of the 1970 Soccer World
Cup, as the main games were held in Mexico City, elevation 2,240m.
The issue that dealt with the protection of the environment where sports
events are held was approached in Brazil in the 1990s as a result of international
action, which produced more theoretical academic research in addition to field
research. After evaluating international research on sports and environment during
this period, the Brazilian researcher Lamartine DaCosta concluded that while
sports express facts, environment expresses values, which generates an ambivalent
condition. The solution in this case would be the development of some type of
ethics that could solve the dilemma permitting sports to be both a villain and a
victim of the physical, social and cultural context at the same time.
Among several lines of investigation in this theme, it is possible to state that
Brazil has had two main groups of research over the years. The first one started up
with DaCosta in 1964 and focused initially on sports, leisure, later on tourism, and
their influences on the environment. This research group was already established
and had scientific, philosophical and technological bases in the early 1990s. As a
result, researchers sharing these same objectives have been publishing their scientific
production in international periodicals since 1967. The second main research group,
Almeida, Ana Cristina P.C. de & DaCosta, Lamartine P.
Meio ambiente, esporte, Lazer e turismo. Rio de Janeiro: Editora Gama Filho, 2007