La influencia de los padres en la carrera de los jóvenes atletas de Gimnasia Artística (The parental influence on the career of young Artistic Gymnastics)

One of the best known manifestations of Artistic Gymnastics is its competitive manifestation. Understanding their initiation, generally, with young children, parental involvement and support becomes one of the fundamental requirements in the development of sporting potential, permanence and, mainly, in psychological well-being. Therefore, the objective of this study is limited to verifying how the parental influence occurs before the career of the gymnasts daughters. Five parents of athletes who competed in the State and Brazilian Artistic Gymnastics Championship, child category, participated by the Gymnastics Federation of Rio Grande do Sul, in the city of Porto Alegre, Brazil. As a research instrument, a semi-structured interview was used and, subsequently, the data were analyzed from the content analysis of Bardin (2011). The results demonstrate that the parents support in high performance, the parents' support in the child's sports career/experience appears in several manifestations, such as through transport, purchase of the tools used for training and competitions, change of state/city, travel to championships and also in psychological support. We concluded this study by highlighting that parents have an important relevance in the athletes' sporting life, their participation during their career being essential, however it is important to differentiate pressure incentive in high performance.