Hablemos de las olimpíadas (SPA-ENG)

Let's talk about the Olympics

On these days, some community members have been posting about the upcoming Summer Olympic Games that will begin exactly 127 days from now in the beautiful city of Paris, the capital of France, known by many as the City of Light.

We know that in the Olympics we have the opportunity to enjoy the broadcast of a good number of sports, disciplines, and competitions for a full month, perhaps for the only time in four years and we will have to wait another four years to be able to appreciate them again.

This is because several, perhaps most of these sports are not of mass consumption and since they do not generate interest and profit for the sports networks that broadcast competitions, they are simply left aside until the Olympics arrive, where all sports acquire significance. , a gold medal obtained in skateboarding, for example, is worth the same as one in soccer, it is a unique opportunity to observe sports that we do not usually see and perhaps enjoy them enough to practice it in the future.

Since I like to know about everything I speak and write, I was doing my homework and I started researching these international sports games that have been taking place since 1896, that first big event took place in Athens and they were given the name Games of the I Olympiad. At that time and due to the great international success, it was decided to hold them every 4 years, although in 1906 the games were developed that at that time were called "The Intercalated" also in Athens after those developed in Paris in 1900 and San Luis (USA) in 1904, currently the International Olympic Committee (IOC) does not recognize them. Later, the rhythm was resumed and continued until 1912, after which due to the First World War the games were suspended and were only resumed in 1920, barely after the world conflagration. Curiously, it was decided to name that event the Games of the VII Olympiad, although the VI was never held. The same criterion was used when they were suspended due to the Second World War, from the Games of the XI Olympiad held in 1936 in Berlin, there was an impasse until 1948 when the Games of the XIV Olympiad were held, this time leaving a new gap in both the development and the name. And so, we continue to this day, the next meeting will be in Paris in the middle of the year and its name will be the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad, although in reality only thirty were held.

The number of participating sports and athletes has been constantly increasing, in the first edition in 1896 there were only 10 sports divided into 43 competitions and 241 athletes, only 14 countries represented and there were no female athletes. In the last event held in Japan 2020 (which had to be held in 2021 due to the COVID pandemic), there were 33 Olympic sports contested in 339 competitions, 205 countries represented by 11,326 athletes, the number of female athletes reached 48% of the total participants in these upcoming games there will be 50% men and 50% women, a triumph of gender equality.

From that distant first game of our era, very few sports have had perfect attendance in the same modality, only four, are athletics, fencing, artistic gymnastics, and swimming, we could add cycling with one exception, in 1912 there were no track cycling competitions, but road cycling, it is another discipline for the same sport.

In its long history, there have been sports that were first presented as an exhibition and then began to be part of the official program, there were sports that were part of the games and then were withdrawn, among these those that had the most participation we can mention the game of the rope or cinch and polo, there were others that only had one or two presentations and no more, cricket, lacrosse or motorboating, for example. Some sports only appeared as demonstrations, such as motor racing, roller hockey, or American football, to name just a few of the best-known ones.

There is much more information about the rich history of the Olympic sport, there are hidden or little-known pearls, there are curiosities and discrepancies and there is no lack of political, cultural, and racial seasoning.

To all this, I did not say anything about the Winter Olympic Games, where other sports or variants of these take place in different types of environments and climatic conditions, those games are acquiring greater and greater importance and significance. It will remain for the future.

As I mentioned at the beginning, in 127 days the greatest show of sporting diversity in humanity begins, it lasts approximately a month and you have to sit back, watch, and enjoy it.

It's what I'm going to do.