Gymnastics in Trinidad and Tobago

Abstract This article examines the manifestation of racism, colourism, sexualization, and nationalism in the local print media coverage surrounding the selection of a white gymnast instead of her Black teammate on the Trinidad and Tobago team for the 2016 Rio Olympics. In doing so, it draws on intersectionality theory and the qualitative content analysis of the language, as well as photos used in the reporting by the three major local newspapers on the island, in order to interrogate these issues. The study found evidence of sexualization of both gymnasts, although the white gymnast was more sexualized. There was an interplay of race, colour, and gender in relation to the sexualization process, as well as an interplay of race, colour, and nationality in the ambiguous opposition to her selection. This ambivalence was seen further as a reflection of the contradictions surrounding nationalism as a source of both solidarity and division in society, expressed through the workings of the ‘sport–nationalism–media troika.’ The findings of the study in relation to sexualization, the historical white bias in the society, and the intersection of race, colour, gender, and nationalism were generally consistent with the international literature on the subject and the role of the sport media in these practices. However, there is a need for more comparative studies of gymnastics, the sport media in the Caribbean and the Global South on the whole, together with the application of intersectionality to understand its workings in order to help improve the coverage of female athletes.