THE RETIREMENT ANNOUNCEMENT OF PARATLETA DANIEL DIAS: AN ANALYSIS OF COMMENTS ON INSTAGRAM SOCIAL NETWORK

Abstract

In 2021, Brazilian swimming Paralympian Daniel Dias announced his retirement for the final of the Tokyo Paralympic Games on his Instagram social network page, which generated countless reactions from social subjects that use this page. Given such repercussions, we aimed to analyze the meanings produced by comments users after the announcement of his retirement, using the discourse analysis technique to debug our data. As a result, we noticed four indicators in the statements: 1- recognition: they recognize in Daniel his entire personal and/or athletic life trajectory, praising his commitment to sports practices; 2- inspiration: they show admiration for his trajectory; 3- emotions: express nostalgic feelings of love and gratitude to the athlete; and 4- faith e prosperity: thank him for his attitude and example of life inside and outside the pools, wishing him blessings and words of protection, besides congratulating him for the moral and ethical rectitude of his trajectory. It’s noticed, lastly, a distinction as a Brazilian idol and an example for a successful path of life.

Keywords:
Sports for Persons with Disabilities; Swimming; Social network; Instagram.