This thesis examines the struggle for equal gender representation in the Olympic swimming and athletics arena. It investigates the relationship in participation and representation between men and women in athletics and swimming from the first modern Olympic Games in Athens in 1896 to Rio de Janeiro in 2016.  When the modern Olympic Games resumed in 1896, they had been recreated by a group of privileged men. These men had created a forum for the aristocratic masculine world and initially had no intention of including women in their creation.  The contemporaries around the turn of the century in 1900 considered women to be weak, inappropriate and that femininity was the exact opposite of everything that the masculine competitive sport represented. Muscle, fitness and sweat were not something that the weak female bodies would be associated with. Man was created for the public sphere and woman for the home domains. The sports movement was a mirror of the prevailing privileged upper-class society and came to conform to the prevailing social and culturally constructed norms that were prevalent in the meantime. The women made a first breakthrough in the masculine sports sphere in the early 20th century and then they managed to make a real breakthrough in the 1920s. This created concern among the privileged men. Should women athletes change in a more masculine direction, would they even lose interest in traditional female responsibilities such as home and family formation?  The struggle for equal representation continued throughout the 20th century and only in connection with the feminine radicalization of the 1960s and 1970s as a real change did it begin to be seen again in the Olympic competition arenas and only after the turn of the millennium has real equality regarding representation been achieved.  In this thesis, I have studied  the athletics and swimming women inclusion to into the Olympic space. I spotlight how the two sports have developed from an equality and gender equality point of view. My survey prove a clear connection and have put figures on men and women's participation and demonstrated inequalities in the Olympic space.

Orientador: Paulo José dos Reis Pereira / Resumo: O Rio de Janeiro inseriu-se, fortemente, nos circuitos internacionais de interesses econômicos e políticos através da possibilidade de sediar megaeventos esportivos de portes globais. Dessa maneira, a “cidade maravilhosa dos encantos mil” precisou modificar-se, adequar-se a modelos e padrões internacionais que possibilitassem essa inserção. Dois grandes projetos se estabeleceram na dinâmica urbana carioca. O primeiro diz respeito à execução de grandes intervenções urbanísticas de transformações e remoções violentas sem precedentes, como no Porto Maravilha, ditadas por um modelo de cidade neoliberal aberta à iniciativa financeira internacional. O segundo é talvez o mais cruel e persistente, a militarização do cotidiano das periferias realizada pelas ocupações militares e, principalmente, pela implementação das Unidades de Polícia Pacificadoras, que foram orientadas por tecnicidades de controle e monitoramento de cunho coercitivo e violento. Esses dois projetos instruíram a imagem de uma cidade que, muito além de ser somente atrativa para investimentos, ela se tornaria, primordialmente, segura e ordenada. Nesse sentido, o trabalho tem como objetivo analisar em paralelo a convergência desses dois fenômenos e suas implicações para as dinâmicas urbanas no Rio de Janeiro, as quais tentaram projetar internacionalmente uma imagem de cidade global de vitrine, militarizada, modificada, neoliberal e pacificada, perfeita para ser vendida como sinônimo de desenvolvimento. À princípio, o c... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: Rio de Janeiro was strongly inserted in the international circuits of economic and political interests through the possibility of hosting mega sporting events of global size. Thus, the “wonderful city of the thousand charms” had to be modified, adapted to international models and standards that would allow this insertion. Two major projects were established in Rio's urban dynamics. The first concerns the execution of major urban interventions of unprecedented violent transformations and removals, such as Porto Maravilha, dictated by a neoliberal city model open to international financial initiative. The second is perhaps the most cruel and persistent, the militarization of the daily life of the peripheries carried out by the military occupations and, mainly, by the implementation of the Pacifying Police Units, which were guided by coercive and violent control and monitoring techniques. These two projects shaped the image of a city that, far from being just attractive for investment, would become primarily safe and orderly. In this sense, the work aims to analyze in parallel the convergence of these two phenomena and their implications for urban dynamics in Rio de Janeiro, which tried to project internationally an image of a perfect, militarized, modified, neoliberal and pacified, showcase global city to be sold as a synonym for development. At first, the consensus that was created in Rio in 2009 projected a very specific idealized city future to accommodate the Games, and the... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Resumen: Río de Janeiro se insertó fuertemente en los circuitos internacionales de intereses económicos y políticos através de la posibilidad de organizar mega eventos deportivos de tamaño global. Por lo tanto, la "ciudad maravillosa de los mil encantos" tuvo que ser modificada, adaptada a los modelos y estándares internacionales que permitirían esta inserción. Se establecieron dos proyectos importantes en la dinámica urbana de Río. El primero se refiere a la ejecución de importantes intervenciones urbanas de transformaciones y mudanzas violentas sin precedentes, como Porto Maravilha, dictado por un modelo de ciudad neoliberal abierto a la iniciativa financiera internacional. La segunda es quizás la más cruel y persistente, la militarización de la vida cotidiana de las periferias llevada a cabo por las ocupaciones militares y, principalmente, por la implementación de las Unidades de Policía Pacificadoras, que se guiaron por técnicas de control y vigilancia coercitivas y violentas. Estos dos proyectos configuraron la imagen de una ciudad que, lejos de ser simplemente atractiva para la inversión, se volvería principalmente segura y ordenada. En este sentido, el trabajo tiene como objetivo analizar en paralelo la convergencia de estos dos fenómenos y sus implicaciones para la dinámica urbana en Río de Janeiro, que intentó proyectar internacionalmente una imagen de una ciudad global perfecta, militarizada, modificada, neoliberal y pacificada. para ser vendido como sinónimo de desarrollo. ... (Resumen completo clicar acceso eletrônico abajo) / Mestre