The Figure of Athlete in Contemporary Media

This paper examines the athlete's body during the sport competition and the processes that happen to it during its depiction by cameras. The main question that this paper formulates is “how do the athlete’s bodies create a sport show”. The introduction has a brief literature review where the author describes the existing papers that combine sport studies and visual studies. The research is based upon men’s and women’s 100 meters competition during 2015 Worlds Championships in Athletics. In the main part there is a description of the existing methods of shooting the athletic competition. Using the visual material the author describes how the shooting of athletes happens. Then, the author points out the main aspects of the athletic body that show itself during the shooting and attract the audience’s attention. There are such aspects as aesthetics, erotization, theatre influence, narration, dramatic effect.