WHAT DOES THE OLYMPIC MEDAL TABLE MEAN?
“Enthusiasm” means “god within me.” If physical competitions excite us, does that mean the body is a divine vehicle?
Physical feats excite us and set a goal. The physical feats of others, the ones we see in a competition, excite us.
That is why (but not only why) sport has great value.
That is why organizing something like the Olympics is important.
For a person to perform a physical feat, many things are required. Athletes need a great, very expensive infrastructure to become the wonder they can be. It is difficult to have it.
There are governments that with great spontaneity and clarity create these different infrastructures and open them up so that talent can come. Governments create these infrastructures in different ways: they pay for them with the taxes they collect, and they encourage people to create them, or combinations. This is how the phrase that appears in the animated film Ratatouille is fulfilled: “Not everyone can be a great chef / a great athlete, but a great chef / a great athlete can come from anywhere.” Thus, the government becomes an agent of talent.
It is very easy for people to lose sight of the fact that what the Olympic medal table ostentatiously shows is not the differences between the infrastructures that countries have. What the Olympic medal table ostentatiously shows is the different quality of government that people give themselves.
What the Olympic medal table shows is the respect, affection, love, and desire for enthusiasm that each society gives itself.
In Paris 2024, the three athletes who won gold, silver, and bronze in the triple jump were all of Cuban origin.
They all climbed onto the podium supported by countries to which they had to emigrate in order to shine. To be.
Jordan Díaz was born in Havana on February 23, 2001, and represented Cuba at the Pan American Games, where he won silver in Lima 2019. In 2021, at a competition in Castellón, he defected and asked for asylum in Spain, where they welcomed him. Now, he won Olympic gold at Paris 2024.
“The situation is very difficult in (Cuba) and many of us have decided to leave for a better future,” said Jordan Díaz. “I owe everything to Spain, they have supported me from the beginning, this competition has been beautiful for Spain, the gold is the highest achievement I could imagine,” he said.
Pedro Pablo Pichardo was born in Santiago de Cuba on June 30, 1993; In the Caribbean country he managed to win gold at the Pan American Games in Toronto in 2015, two silver medals at the world championships in 2013 and 2015, and bronze at the World Indoor Championships in Sopot (Poland) in 2014. In 2017 he fled Cuba to take up residence in Portugal, a country he has represented since 2019. At Paris 2024 he took the silver medal.
Finally, Andy Díaz was born on December 25, 1995. On February 23, of 2023 he received Italian nationality after leaving Cuba, he gave the country the victory in the Diamond League, and now in Paris 2024 the bronze medal.
“I didn’t know where to stay, I didn’t have money to eat, I decided to leave (Cuba) and I found brilliant and wonderful people who helped me a lot, they gave me all the tools I needed, I’m very lucky to get Italian citizenship, it’s great for me. I’m a competitive person and Jordan knows that. I’m very happy representing Italy,” she said.
In Mexico, the phenomenon of Olympic athletes without support reveals many things.
Virtually all the athletes in the Mexican delegation have accused the government body in charge of supporting them of denying them that support, not now for these Olympics, but for years.
The archers, the Mexicans Alejandra Valencia, Ana Paula Vázquez, and Ángela Ruiz won the bronze medal in Paris 2024. They said that they received the bare minimum from Ana Gabriela Guevara, head of CONADE, and, therefore, they do not have to thank them for anything.
“Many times we are going to evade that question, but saying that it was the bare minimum is fair. I won’t say that they have given us more than we deserve, but not less either. I’m not going to thank them for feeding us,” said Vázquez.
The diver Osmar Olvera became a double Olympic medalist by winning a silver in the three-meter synchronized event with Juan Manuel Celaya and a bronze individually in Paris 2024. He achieved the result despite almost zero support from the National Commission for Physical Culture and Sport (Conade) and its director Ana Gabriela Guevara during the Olympic cycle.
According to information provided by Conade, the 20-year-old diver only received 156 thousand pesos for his sports scholarship from 2020 to 2024; that is, he was given 3,250 pesos per month for his training, preparation, and travel expenses. Therefore, the body presided over by Guevara allocated 1,625 pesos to him every two weeks. That’s 86.29 USD every two weeks.
