We like to imagine our sporting heroes as supermen, capable of physical deeds impossible to us mortals watching on.

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These supermen and wonder women are our ideals, our prototypes of what people do when they have the power.

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"What we mean by this is the way in which the athletes are going to be seen not as whole people, but as supermen and women, only reflected through the prism of this one aspect of their lives, " she explained.

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