Giannis Antetokounmpo has been ready for this evening his complete life. Raised on the fringes of Greek society together with his scruffy siblings and penniless dad and mom, ravenous, hunted, an emaciated boy who took to biowrestling earlier than he even grew a beard, dreamed of escaping poverty, of darkness, of standing upright underneath from the highlight and symbolize your complete nation to which he realized to belong.
When in a scholar parade he was referred to as upon to be a flag bearer dressed within the crimson uniform of the Philathletikos, he closed his eyes and envisioned himself parading underneath the Olympic flame. Possibly at 22, in unique Rio de Janeiro. Or at 26, on the opposite aspect of the planet, in Tokyo. For the household that got here from black Africa to hunt a spot within the solar of Greece, all “first world” international locations appeared the identical. No later than 30, in 2024, in Paris, underneath the Eiffel Tower…
The dream got here true on Friday evening in terror-stricken Paris, and Yannis’ heat tears almost flooded the Seine. Acclaimed NBA champion, twice most beneficial participant on this planet, goofball and devoted companion, wealthy, well-known and but humble, Giannis needed to reside his childhood dream and dedicate it to the reminiscence of his father.
Charles Antetokounmpo stated goodbye to this useless world in September 2016, however he was mentally current yesterday in Paris, behind each cloud, within the ripples of the river, subsequent to the dark-colored faces of the immigrants. Giannis was waving the Greek flag and searching for his father within the streets, within the crowd. “I want you had been right here, dad, to make your child proud. We have made it, Dad, the world is ours.”
Giannis Antetokounmpo appeared first within the Parade of Nations and hid the entire world in his eyes. His turbulent life performed out earlier than his eyes like a young Truffaut movie, just like the surrealist movies of Jean-Luc Godard. Those that knew his story moved with him, shed tears on his behalf.
Three thousand kilometers away, the entire of Greece – aside from Lacedaemonia – was accompanying its best consultant. Antigoni Drisbiotis, subsequent to Giannis, was surprised. A girl-symbol dressed within the colours of a rustic that has girls for the kitchen and for the bed room. Our two flag bearers symbolize our Greek society not as it’s however accurately: open-minded, multicultural, inclusive, tolerant, humane. So be it, although. Right here foreigners nonetheless imagine that Greece is in league with the traditional immortal spirit and with the teachings of Plato and Aristotle.
The Olympic Video games started within the cradle of the Enlightenment with the inevitable spectacle, with fireworks, with colours, with perfumes, with smiles real but in addition synthetic, with LeBron James and Nadal and Djokovic and Duplantis, with 10,000 athletes cramming their goals into floats, with chanson and emotion, with hordes of policemen sweating from anxiousness and agony in opposition to the invisible risk, with Israel, Palestine and Ukraine however with out Russia (aside from just a few athletes behind the white flag), with… Mitsotakis, with the Eiffel Tower illuminated within the colours of equality, with gasps each time deafening phrases like “peace” and “truce” had been heard.
In our minds, the brilliant face of Giannis Antetokounmpo, the kid who lived essentially the most daring dream, crossed the Arc de Triomphe standing up and felt like he was enjoying with the planet in his fingers, will endlessly be engraved. When – on Friday morning – he was advised that the journey from Lille to the Metropolis of Gentle was in peril of being canceled on account of sabotage on the trains, he rebelled: “I got here right here to carry the flag and, if essential, I’ll go to Paris on foot ».
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#John #triumphal #arch
