Paper short abstract:

New technologies open possibilities to research affects and bodily remembrance. I explore how a virtual cycling platform, where the race circuit can be relived, can be used as a tool when studying the experiences of the first women cyclists who participated in the Olympic games.

Paper long abstract:

Athletes have a strong connection with affects and experience a wide variety of possibilities for bodily remembrance for instance regarding their training regime and races, being exposed to the elements, risking injury, and celebrating success.

I study the experiences of the first women cyclists who participated in the Olympic Games in 1984. In my research I explore the possibilities that a virtual cycling platform can offer for oral history. Currently it is possible to generate a race circuit with its landform onto a virtual cycling platform that controls a resistance device, where a bike can be attached. This makes it possible for the research interviewee to sit on their bike and virtually ride around the race circuit experiencing the uphills and downhills, possibly even paired with the visual images of the surroundings.

What happens when a former elite cyclist gets to relive the Olympic race circuit almost four decades after the race? How does this play together with the affects involved in their memories? And how does this need to be addressed methodologically?