The ageing body and the ontology of ageing: Athletic competence in later life

This article will propose new understandings of ageing bodies in late modern societies, underpinned by a concern to find ways of resisting the erosion of social and cultural capital which accompanies bodily ageing, not predicated on the denial of ageing. Theorizing older bodies is still underdeveloped. The central question posed by this article is whether the ageing body constitutes the ontology of ageing. While this restores to the sociology of ageing an embodied dimension, it also runs the danger of restricting understandings of ageing to its bodily dimension, leaving aside the social and offering little opportunity for alternative articulations of the relationship between bodily ageing, identity and agency. I address these issues by examining the lived experiences of older Veteran elite runners using data collected in life history interviews. The social embeddedness of body and self work is highlighted.