Embodied knowing at the borderlands: Autohistoria-teoría and the lived story of a Brazilian Olympic athlete

Abstract

In this article, I explore the potential of Gloria Anzaldúa's autohistoria-teoría as a decolonial methodology for qualitative research in sport. Drawing on an in-depth narrative with Brazilian Olympic rugby athlete Taís Bernal Balconi, I examine how athletic experience can illuminate Anzaldúa's stages of conocimiento: arrebato (rupture), nepantla (contradiction), and Coyolxauhqui (recomposition). I interpret the athlete's reflections on injury, exclusion, and healing as forms of embodied theorizing—moments in which the body itself becomes a site of ethical, emotional, and spiritual knowledge. By reading sport through autohistoria-teoría, I reframe the athlete's narrative not as data but as theory-in-motion. I show how listening, vulnerability, and relational care emerge as epistemic practices that challenge performance-driven paradigms in sport research. The study contributes to ongoing feminist and decolonial debates by proposing autohistoria-teoría as a relational and transformative methodology that recognizes the body as both subject and source of knowledge.