July 2012, London, the biggest sport event in the world takes place for the third time in this city. Two weeks and it all ends. People have been preparing London for a year to host this fantastic event and it all blows away in two weeks. Athletes have been training for years and they will have to do their best if the want to be noticed. Two weeks in which all five continents come together to compete against each other with equal possibilities. During the competitions they are all the same. The colour of their skin, the country they come from, the shape of their eyes or the language they speak don’t matter. The only thing that matters is how good they are, how fast they can run, how fast they can swim, how perfectly they can dive, how good their aim is because in front of the judges, in front of the chronometer, in front of the ball, they are all equal.
When I was asked to write this article these were the first things that came to my mind thinking about the Olympics but there is much more to say.
This year in London we celebrate the 30th Olympics even if it really should be the 27th because three were cancelled. They were cancelled during the I and II World War because the Olympics are a symbol of peace between the continents and in those years nothing could create peace between the continents.
Every two years people from all the world unite in one city. This is what the Games give us, all the world, all the world together with no discrimination, all the world in peace.
What I cannot forget to mention are the paralympics, the proof that to attend the Olympics you just need talent, nobody cares if you have mental or physical disability because disabled people have the same right to participate and win the Olympics.
What does it really mean to win a medal at the Olympics?
I’ve asked myself this question many times and I have come to an answer: eternal glory. This is what an Olympic champion receives. He will always be remembered for what he did because in order to win you have to be the best, the best in the whole wide world. We just need to think about Usain Bolt, he ran 100 meters in 9.58 seconds. Can we imagine for a moment what that means? This is probably the farthest we can get with the potential of our bodies.
For the athletes who compete, the Games are not only a competition against others but also a competition against themselves. Probably Usain Bolt, this year, will be ready to try and beat his own record again.
July 2012, London, the biggest sport event in the world takes place for the third time in this city. What will it give us? New world records? New champions? Let’s wait and see…
Maddalena Tibone (1E)