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Author: Anders McD Sookermany

The aim of this paper has been to contribute to the ongoing discourse on skill, know-how, and expertise in the sporting world by posting an alternative view, one that explores the meaningfulness of difference from the outlook of difference. Hence, my ambition was to put focus on how we look at difference in the sporting world and, subsequently, to set the stage for expanding the analytical framework we use in exploring sports today. Essentially, my argument is based on an assumption that the prevailing paradigm of sports is constructed and continuously redeveloped on the grand narrative of modernity emphasizing sameness over difference, and consequently, leaving sportification as its evolutionary footprint. Accordingly, in pursuit of an alternative, I have utilized a postmodern outlook with emphasis on emancipation, deconstruction, vocabulary, dialog, diversity, and aesthetics as the analytical framework in constructing a narrative of difference, rather than sameness. More so, as to frame the argument, making the meaningfulness of difference visible, I have used the phenomenon of gamechangers – the true postmodernists of the sporting world – as a grinding stone in order to display, what I intended to be, a convincing narrative of difference. Thus, in conclusion, I believe a utilization of such a narrative will add valuable insight to the meaningfulness of difference in relation to the debate on bodily skill, know-how, and expertise in the sporting world in general and for the development of gamechangers in particular.

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