Deporte (Continuación)

ReflexionesSocial,

When it comes to Olympic protests, the demonstrators in London, Paris and San Francisco are a pretty wimpy bunch, at least compared to the ancient Greeks. Back in the classical era, protesters really knew how to disrupt an Olympics ceremony.

In 364 B.C., soldiers stormed the arena in Olympia and a pitched battle occurred on the field. It was history’s most dramatic clash of politics and sports. The management of the Games, according to Xenophon, had been wrested from the traditional hosts, the Elians, by a neighboring bunch, the Pisans — and the Elians weren’t pleased. They decided to invade the festival at its climax, when thousands of Greek spectators were happily watching a wrestling match.…  Seguir leyendo »

ReflexionesSocial,

You can write much of the script for London 2012 already: the tube strikes, the cost over-runs, the security computers that won't work and the Kazakh weightlifters lost in Terminal Five. Factor fat helpings of familiar chaos. But the real problem for the Olympic games we thought we wanted to host is beginning to emerge from the smog over Beijing. Boycotts, boycotts everywhere, and never a pause to think.

Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, has given in already. She won't be going to China this summer, like the Polish prime minister and Czech president. Mr Sarkozy is wandering down the same lightly principled path.…  Seguir leyendo »

ReflexionesSocial,

"We believe the Olympic Games are not the place for demonstrations, and we hope that all people attending the games recognize the importance of this." Thus spoke Samsung Electronics, one of 12 major corporate sponsors of the Olympics, when asked last week whether recent events in Tibet were causing it any concern. Coca-Cola, another Olympics sponsor, has stated that while it would be inappropriate "to comment on the political situation of individual nations," the company firmly believes "that the Olympics are a force for good." The chairman of the International Olympic Committee, Jacques Rogge, was also quick to declare that "a boycott doesn't solve anything" -- just as he was quick to dismiss the demonstrators who waved a black banner showing interlocked handcuffs, in mockery of the Olympic symbol, at yesterday's lighting of the Olympic torch in Greece.…  Seguir leyendo »

EspañaModelo de EstadoModelo Territorial,

A finales de diciembre se jugará el habitual partido de la selección vasca de fútbol. Iba a escribir de manera automática 'selección de Euskadi' cuando me he dado cuenta de que ahora dicen que es la de Euskal Herria. Un grupete muy identificado de jugadores ha presionado al presidente de la Federación Vasca de Fútbol para el cambio de denominación. Y ello por la equivocada idea de que Euskadi no representa a todo el pueblo vasco y que equivaldría a la CAV, idea defendida por la izquierda abertzale para reflejar la 'desidia' del nacionalismo institucional por la territorialidad. Criterio, por cierto, reciente, porque seguro que todos nos acordamos del 'Nafarroa Euskadi da' que se coreaba en las manifestaciones de la Transición y la década de los ochenta.…  Seguir leyendo »

EuropaUnión Europea,

A black formula one world champion seemed, even last year, unthinkable, yet Lewis Hamilton so nearly made it. This is a sport that has long suffered from an almost total white-out. Apart from the Japanese, virtually every face in the paddock, let alone on the starting grid, was, until recently, white. This is hardly surprising. The more expensive and/or exclusive a sport, the whiter it tends to be: the fact almost has the force of a law. That is the main reason why the Rugby World Cup, the Pacific islands excepted, was so desperately white, the Springboks included.

But then along came Lewis Hamilton.…  Seguir leyendo »

ReflexionesSocial

At the 16-mile mark of a very hot and humid marathon at the Pan American Games in Cali, Colombia, in 1971, I looked over at my good friend and teammate Kenny Moore and noticed something. “You’ve stopped sweating,” I said, trying to sound calm. Kenny looked at his dry forearms, and then his eyes got very big. Ten minutes later he was in an ambulance, incoherent with heat stroke.

We had both expected extreme conditions and had prepared accordingly all summer. But it was not his day, and I went on the win the race. (The next summer, Kenny would finish fourth in the Olympic Marathon in Munich, which I won.)…  Seguir leyendo »

InternacionalIglesia Católica

Not satisfied with its divine undertaking to convert the world to its own version of Christianity, the Vatican has embarked on a new crusade. Through the Italian Conference of Bishops, it has bought a stake in AC Ancona, a third division Italian club, with the objective of injecting some “overdue” morality into football.

“We want to bring some ethics back into the game, which has been undergoing a grave crisis in terms of sportsmanship,” Edoardo Menichelli, the Archbishop of Ancona, said. It is understood that bishops are drawing up an ethical code specifically related to the beautiful (soon to be called beatific) game.…  Seguir leyendo »

EspañaSocial,

Durante muchos y repetidos días terminales de agosto hemos asistido al espectáculo del dolor popular retransmitido en directo con una autenticidad muy infrecuente en la televisión. El dolor popular está presente todos los días en los entierros del mundo islámico, en las familias destruidas por huracanes, incendios o bombardeos, en la omnipresencia del terror, la miseria y la crueldad, una constante en los diversos canales porque es un componente esencial sin el cual la televisión sería inútil.

El contrapunto de los concursos, culebrones, series, deportes, galas y programas de obscenidad sentimental ha de ser necesariamente una presencia del dolor, la miseria y la muerte en espacios prime rate.…  Seguir leyendo »

ReflexionesSocial,

There is now a regular season for discussing drugs in sports, one that arrives every year with the Tour de France. This year, the overall leader, two other riders, and two teams were expelled or withdrew from the race as a result of failing, or missing, drug tests. The eventual winner, Alberto Contador, was alleged to have had a positive test result last year, although he was cleared by the International Cycling Union. So many leading cyclists have tested positive for drugs, or have admitted from the safety of retirement that they used them, that one can plausibly doubt it possible to be competitive in this event otherwise.…  Seguir leyendo »

ReflexionesSocial,

The men’s 100m at the World Athletics Championships in Japan this month will be won by a black athlete. This is not so much a prediction as a statement of fact. Every winner of the 100m at the championships since the inaugural event in 1983 has been black, as has every finalist from the last eight championships. No white athlete has reached the final of the Olympic Games for more than a quarter of a century. Of the 53 athletes to have ducked under ten seconds, all are black.

There is a natural conclusion to be drawn from all this: blacks have an inbuilt superiority over whites when it comes to sprinting.…  Seguir leyendo »

ReflexionesSocialEuropaUnión Europea, ,

A wave of optimism, almost euphoria is sweeping through France this summer. After several years of déclinologues spreading doom and gloom as unemployment figures rose and household incomes stagnated, suddenly the future seems rosy. The reason quite simply is Nicolas Sarkozy: in a few short weeks he has created his own style of presidency: informal, dynamic, omnipresent.

The French seem bemused, almost proud, that they have finally produced a President who seems capable of anything and who works like a demon to make anything possible. New laws follow one another through parliament so rapidly that one rarely has time to digest them – indeed, with most of France on holiday, cynics claim that this is deliberate: by the time people stagger back to work in September the fabric of their country will be scarcely recognisable.…  Seguir leyendo »

ReflexionesSocial,

Oscar Pistorius, the double-amputee South African sprinter who calls himself "the fastest man on no legs," made his 400-meter debut racing against nondisabled runners two weeks ago in Sheffield, England. Unfortunately, the much-anticipated race was anticlimactic. Pistorius was disqualified for running outside of his lane.

This technical misstep only postpones the inevitable.

By contesting the notion that a disabled runner cannot, and should not, compete with nondisabled runners, Pistorius has challenged preconceived ideas not only of sport but of what it means to be human.

Since Pistorius petitioned to compete with nondisabled runners, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), track and field's global governing body, has prohibited the use of technological aids such as springs and wheels.…  Seguir leyendo »

ReflexionesSocial,

Last year's investigation into the blood-doping ring run by a Spanish doctor led a number of optimists (I was one) to predict that the resulting clearout of big names might mean the "cleanest" Tour de France since the early 1990s, when the suspected widespread use of EPO began. Such hopes were dashed, however, after the leader, Floyd Landis, tested positive for high testosterone levels in the final days of the race. He disputes the ruling, and the 2006 Tour has no official winner.

And now the 2007 race has lost its leader, with Michael Rasmussen sacked under a cloud of suspicion - just a day after one of the favourites, Alexandr Vinokourov, tested positive for blood-doping and left the race in disgrace.…  Seguir leyendo »

ReflexionesSocial,

No one should be surprised by the news that federal officials are investigating whether Tim Donaghy, a referee for the National Basketball Association, bet on N.B.A. games and may have used his position to manipulate game scores so that he or his associates could profit from their wagers. David Stern, the commissioner of the N.B.A., characterized Donaghy as “an isolated case,” but this both misrepresents history and misses the point.

Stern may be correct that Donaghy is the only bad apple in the current crop of N.B.A. refs, but sports betting scandals are fairly common. They are the result of persistent economic incentives that can be traced to the structure of sports gambling markets.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAsia,

Tema: Los Juegos Olímpicos de 2008 en Pekín se están viendo precedidos por una inédita serie de medidas y actuaciones rápidas, que incluyen la imagen, las relaciones públicas y las infraestructuras, y que resumen los espectaculares avances así como las contradicciones de China.

Resumen: Este ARI analiza, en primer lugar, algunos de los más espectaculares cambios del Pekín preolímpico. Segundo, intenta perfilar algunos de los efectos de las transformaciones más de fondo. Y tercero, reflexiona sobre las oportunidades y desafíos que brinda el evento a actores estatales y no estatales.

Análisis: Los Juegos Olímpicos (JJOO) representan el capítulo más reciente de la modernización de Pekín, y por ampliación, de toda China.…  Seguir leyendo »

ReflexionesSocial,

For most people on earth today, sport plays a much larger emotional part in their lives than politics. We vote here every four years (although far fewer of us than once, thanks to the collapse in turnout that was Tony Blair's great achievement), but we follow our teams every week. The pattern of the modern year is dictated by the sporting season rather than the church calendar. Instead of Easter and Whitsun, we look forward to the Cup final, to the Open, to the Lord's Test, to Wimbledon and the accompanying rain.

Far more of us care about Thierry Henry's departure from Arsenal than about the shadow cabinet reshuffle.…  Seguir leyendo »

EspañaSocial

Cada vez que el conjunto merengue triunfa, la Cibeles se marca un chotis y los leones rugen de puro contento. Sobra apuntar aquí que lo que más le pone a esta diosa lozana es el jaleo y también sobra apuntar que, en los últimos tiempos, andaba algo olvidada. Se podría decir que la Cibeles había perdido ese aire que desprenden las reales hembras cuando no son atendidas. Pero el domingo, pumba, se terminó tan larga espera. Y como no podía ser menos, los merengues cumplieron con su diosa.

Fue con el tercer gol cuando empezaron a llegar los cánticos, «campeones, campeones, oe, oe, oe» y la alegría se extendió como se extiende una enfermedad secreta cuando deja de ser secreta, valga la comparación venérea.…  Seguir leyendo »

EuropaUnión Europea, ,

George Monbiot's suggestion that "evictions of the poor, along with mentally ill people and beggars, are one of the [Olympic] games' best-established traditions" can't be allowed to stand without a response (London is getting into the Olympic spirit - by kicking out the Gypsies, June 12).How can he claim that "everything we have been told about the Olympic legacy turns out to be bunkum" - five years before the games have even taken place, and five years before we will see the start of what we plan to be a lasting legacy?

When London won the right to host the games, we promised to create a sustainable legacy for London and the UK.…  Seguir leyendo »

EuropaUnión Europea, ,

Everything we have been told about the Olympic legacy turns out to be bunkum. The games are supposed to encourage us to play sport; they are meant to produce resounding economic benefits and help the poor. It's all untrue. As the evictions in London begin, a new report shows that the only certain Olympic legacy is a transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich.Both Lord Coe and Tessa Jowell, the sports secretary, like the boosters for every city to have bid for the Olympics, have claimed that the games will lever us off our sofas and turn us into a nation of athletes.…  Seguir leyendo »

EuropaUnión Europea, ,

When the Olympics last came to London, in 1948, their advertisements showed an easily understood combination of the Olympic rings, Big Ben and an ancient statue of a Greek discus thrower (a Roman marble copy of the original Greek bronze, which was and is still one of the British Museum's most prized possessions).

The games were an event rather than a brand. "Logo" existed only as a prefix in the Shorter Oxford: "logocracy, a community or system of government in which words are the ruling powers ... logotype, a type containing a word, or two or more letters, cast in one piece."…  Seguir leyendo »