:format(jpg):quality(99):watermark(f.elconfidencial.com/file/bae/eea/fde/baeeeafde1b3229287b0c008f7602058.png,0,275,1)/f.elconfidencial.com/original/3fd/8b2/946/3fd8b2946d29030d1aa84602e6209ce3.jpg?fit=%2C&ssl=1 "Why are athletes the last gods?")
He said Eduardo Galeano that soccer is the only religion that lacks atheists. And, it could be added, the only one whose gods keep in force devotion and worship. Perhaps because they are more like the strong and weak, light and dark characters that once inhabited the pagan pantheons. It is the subliminal and implicit message that conveys
“You are witnesses” is the metaphysical motto of LeBron James, whose sporting prowess cannot be explained without the obstacle course that he faced the abandonment of his father in a precarious and depressed home in Akron (Ohio).
Laius disowned his son Oedipus. to prevent assassination, in such a way that What the kid said to God both alludes to the human dimension of the gods in their earthly fear and anguish, as he explains and places them in idolatry. Starting by Maradonawhose Dionysian nature explains the religion that inaugurated in Naples and the banner that fans of the team placed in the graveyard after the feat of the scudetto: “What you have missed”, they said to the dead.
Miguel Venegas recounts the episode when he alludes to the category of the gods —Ali, Skin, Senna, Tiger Woods, bike—, although the martyrology published by the Basque journalist also discriminates between heroes —Doll, Cantona, Joe Frazier— and the prophets. The sports rhapsodes who arrived at the pantheon by other alternative paths belong to the inventory. She did it Victor Hugo Morales singing in Mexico the goal of all goals. and they did Murakami with his marathon shoes or Sean Connery when he gave up the proposal to play for Manchester. He was offered £25 a week. They guaranteed him a place among Bobby Charlton y Duncan Edwards, but decided to bet on the theater… The actor came out winning. And he came out on top for United, because the vacant place went to George Best.
If you read this it is because you are alive today; and if you are, you are part of what sport has done to humanity over the past centuries
Venegas resigns from devoting an epigraph to the better and also eludes a specific portrait of Leo Messi. It means that he saints is an arbitrary exercise in miracle workers and places of worship. Sometimes they are conditioned by the present. And others come from the section that Miguel Venegas stars in every week in the program The culture.
The context participates in the idea of exposing sport and athletes away from megaphones and scarves, but very close to society which
They remain inextricably intertwined. “This It is not a dignification of the sport”, explains Venegas in the manual’s prologue. “It is not a question —he adds— of bringing it closer to culture and thus washing it of its usual impurities. This is a demonstration that sport is part of all of us. If you read this it is because you are alive today; and if you are, you are part of what sport has done to humanity during the last centuries.
And during the first ones too. The opportunity to visit the Deposit of Olympia implies a shocking and eloquent exercise of civilizing conscience. The fights that used to be resolved on the battlefield were settled on the track. War was stylized. And they were formalized with rules and spaces all the rituals that defined the evolution of the species: the hunt, the strategy of the group, the playful dimension, the canon of bodily beauty, even the path of perfection of the heroes.
Collect a few cases the inspired and entertaining treated from Venegas —Koby Bryant, Boris Becker, Zatopek—, but the book explores other frontiers and territories. Not only alluding to the culturetas whose execution stimulates the opium of soccer —Sorrentino, in Fontanarro, Kapuscinski—, but by demonstrating that sport hosts the great reforms and revolutions of contemporary society: from the campaign of feminism in Lily Parr to the change of regime and era that rugby brought about in times of Mandela.
It could be said that sport is a form like any other of do politics. In its manipulative and propagandist dimension (of Hitler a Jesus Gil). And in his transformative and visionary capacities. The raised fist of black American athletes in Mexico 68 —Tommy Smith y John Carlos— symbolized a message against racism and discrimination whose repercussions reached the contemporary Black Live Matters campaign.
expression of civilization
We have seen the iranian footballers refusing to sing the national anthem in reaction to the Tehran crackdowns. Sport is not always the most important thing among the least important things,’ he argued. Bob Shanklythe historical coach of Liverpool—, but an expression of western civilization —and eastern— that brings together Luddism, culture, counterculture, passions, social conscience and superstitions.
Mention a few of the bestiary of Venegas. It also introduces us to such unusual sports modalities As the hulring and the lacrossealthough the true toponymy of What the kid said to God it identifies itself —recognizes itself— in the itinerary of temples —Wimbledon, Olympiastadion—, rituals —Boxing Day, Halloween, Super Bowl— and holy cities —Christiania, Paris, Bilbao, San Sebastian— that house the destiny of the latest religions.
He said Eduardo Galeano that soccer is the only religion that lacks atheists. And, it could be added, the only one whose gods keep in force devotion and worship. Perhaps because they are more like the strong and weak, light and dark characters that once inhabited the pagan pantheons. It is the subliminal and implicit message that conveys
