¿Cómo le irá a Colombia en los Juegos Olímpicos de París?

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I' m Roberto Pombo. Welcome
to my questions. An average rush program

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sponsored by Kafam, family compensation box. We are close to the thirty-

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third edition of the Paris Olympic Games. Colombia has improved its participation and medalist

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over the years. Why, if
we are power in cycling, it is

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not reflected in Olympic medals. Why
skating is not an Olympic sport. What

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needs to be done to further boost
Colombian sport for this chapter. We spoke

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with U Valentina sports journalist Peña with
Cecilia la Chechi and Baena world champion in

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skating, with the director of as
Colombia, Steven Arce, with Pedro Aguirre,

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project consultant of the Olympic movement,
with Katio Rego, expert in cycling

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and with Hernán Peraez. I am
Roberto Pombo and this is chapter 90 of

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my questions welcome. In the history
of mankind few customs are maintained. It

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' s a story of change,
of progress, of setbacks. Think of

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your family’ s traditions that have
lasted as generations go by. Now think

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of humanity in proportions, not decades, but millennia, that we have radically

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changed and write texts on papyrus and
scrolls, we go on to dictate or

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let artificial intelligence do it. The
customs to cook, make objects, transport

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us, entertain us have changed.
We no longer eat a newly married and

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roasted animal in front of a fire. Now it' s a meal made

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by someone else who took it to
us by a messenger on a motorcycle and

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who we eat in front of a
TV screen. Today a cell phone and

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only a century ago. It took
several days to cross the country through the

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simulated boat train, or it took
weeks to cross the Atlantic Ocean on a

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ship with the risk of shipwreck.
Now it' s a matter of a

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couple of hours on a flight,
arriving from Santa Marta to Bogotá, or

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taking ten hours sleeping and watching a
couple of movies, a flight to Bogotá

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Madrid. To think of what we
call the years before Christ is almost to

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think of another humanity. We read
or see what the species did in the

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time of its customs and they seem
a completely different species from ours. But

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there are many traditions that have persisted
since then, many of them religious and

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in other cases. Unfortunately, like
wars, it also continues. Perhaps we

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no longer sacrifice animals in the name
of God or wars no longer consist of

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armies of thousands of men on horseback
with spears and swords facing body to body.

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But the custom of worshipping gods and
confronting one another remains intact. However,

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there is a third tradition, a
rather old one, that remains to

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this day, and it is that
of the Olympic Games, an event that

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has lasted millennia, that has adjusted
to it times of world wars, pandemics

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and technology. Yes, because although
the version that is about to begin in

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Paris is the thirty- third,
it does not mean that it is actually

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an event with only thirty- three
versions. The origins of the Olympic Games

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are nebulous and it is not known
exactly how they began. It is said

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that it all began as a funeral
ceremony to commemorate the soldiers killed at war.

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This has been a theme in Greek
literature since Homer who narrates in the

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ilyate the struggles between two men,
a race of carts pulled by horses,

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races on foot, competitions to launch
objects such as boars or aim tests with

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bow and arrow. But we are
not going to go over millennia of sports,

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its origins and its changes. Let
us advance to the present day,

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to the thirty- threeth version of
the modern era, of a celebration of

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the capacity of the human body.
Until the day I record this program,

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the Colombian delegation has sixty- eight
seats to participate in the other Olympics that

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are distributed. Thus, the majority
of the quotas are for the female football

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team, which are eighteen. The
cycling there are seven guaranteed quotas, five

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for track, two for track route
and its different categories have six quotas.

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Boxing and BMX have five each four
weight- lifting quotas. Gymnastics has three

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and other sports with one or two
places. In April of this year,

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Herma Ruiz, vice- president of
the Colombian Olympic Committee, spoke with national

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radio and said that she aspired to
forty more quotas. Thirty- eight quotas

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had been reached at that time,
so the Committee expects it to be seventy

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- eight quotas, so we look
forward to the time remaining to meet that

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expectation. According to a contract known
to the time data unit signed between the

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Ministry of Sport and the Colombian Olympic
Committee, the Government planned a goal of

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one hundred and fifteen athletes, which
would indicate that the Committee was far from

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achieving it. Olympic delegations almost Colombia
have increased over the years. We went

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from a single athlete at the Los
Angeles Olympic Games, one thousand nine hundred

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thirty- two to forty- three
athletes in Mexico sixty- eight. The

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number has been increasing for a few
years, in which it was slightly lower

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than the previous, although with a
consistency. At the Beijing Games two thousand

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eight were sixty- seven Colombian athletes
and four years later, in London there

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were one hundred and four. The
first time the number was greater than a

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hundred. In the next version,
the number grew quite a bit again.

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In the Rio Olympics, the number
of athletes from the Colombian delegation reached its

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peak with one hundred and forty-
seven. However, four years ago in

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Tokyo, that number dropped to less
than half seventy- one. Why is

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this drop in the number of athletes
in the delegation compared to four years ago?

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I asked Steve Narci, director of
the Sports Environment as Colombia. Well,

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you can' t just talk about
quality. Or that at this point

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things are getting much more, even
though they are getting bad. The national

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government' s investment in sport has
not had enough filters to get them to

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where they should go. And that
is a longer chapter that surely deserves to

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be expanded later. But beyond that, because of something very basic, and

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that is that we do not have
the classification of several teams that collectively add

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up more classified to the Olympic Games. For example, we don' t

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have the representation of the men'
s football team at the Olympic Games and

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those are at least twenty- three
players. Then we have twenty- three

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less quotas. So that makes for
practical purposes, that we have less classified.

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But, as I say, it' s not just about saying it

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' s not that I look.
There' s the reason why they'

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re doing things wrong. We'
re with less athletes. You don'

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t have to have too, and
be very technical about this, the magnifying

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glass about collective and individual sports.
In the individual we will carry almost the

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same people as in the past Olympic
Games. We must be honest and not

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be carried away by patriotism. We' re not an Olympic medalist country.

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Colombian athletes have won thirty- four
Olympic medals, five of which have been

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gold, thirteen silver and sixteen bronze. This is not ranked fifty- nine,

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far from countries like the United States, which leads the list in an

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absolute way with two thousand six hundred
fifty- five medals, or China,

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which has one thousand ten. Cuba
is the first Latin American country on the

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list to be in 16th place with
two hundred and thirty- five medals.

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Although the country has participated in all
versions of the Olympic Games since one thousand

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nine hundred and thirty- two,
it took him forty years to have an

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athlete on the podium. The first
Colombian to win an Olympic medal has a

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name that doesn' t look like
a Colombian. Helmut Bellingrodwolf Barranquiller, son

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of German emigrants. At the Munich
Olympic Games one thousand nine hundred and seventy

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- two, he opened the way
with a silver medal. At Olympic Tyre.

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Belingrot fired sixty shots, reaching five
hundred sixty- five points out of

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a total of six hundred, equalling
the score of Soviet Lakov Checksniak, who

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won the gold medal. He participated
again in Montreal in a thousand nine hundred

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and seventy- six, but remained
in sixth place. That same year we

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also obtained two other bronze medals in
boxing we had to wait eight years to

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see Colombian medalists again, and it
was at the Los Angeles Olympics in a

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thousand nine hundred and eighty- four, when Bellingrot repeated the feat and took

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the silver medal again. This was
the only one the Committee obtained in that

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version. In seven thousand nine hundred
and eighty- eight, boxer Jorge Julio

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Rocha hung himself the bronze medal.
In Sydney two thousand was found one of

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the historic moments of Colombian sport.
Tapesista caucana mar know Urrutia hung for the

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first time a gold medal for Colombia. This marked a milestone for the country

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and for national sport. O o
o o. It was only in Url

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London, in two thousand twelve that
one leap in the number of medals was

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made, when there were nine,
a gold medal, that of Mariana Pajon

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in BMX, three silver, rigo
in cycling in Triple Route, Ibarwin caterina

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jump and again lifting weights at the
hands of Oscar figueroa and five bronze in

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BMX, judo fight, lifting weights
and then you in Rio de Janeiro were

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eight and in the past and in
touch there were five. According to the

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contract of the Ministry of Sport and
the Colombian Olympic committee that I mentioned earlier,

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it is expected to increase or equal
the five medals of Tokyo two thousand

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twenty. As read in the contract
and according to the classification projection. It

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is expected to obtain seven Olympic medals, being athletic sports, cycling BMX weightlifting

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and fighting the most chosen sports to
add in Olympic medalism. This goal is

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realistic. I transferred the question to
BLEW sports journalist Radio Valentina peña and this

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she told me. I think that
goal of getting at least seven medals is

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achievable. I don' t think
it' s far off, but yes.

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It is very likely that none of
these medals are gold. And this

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is simply due to the fact that
in comparison to past years, as happened

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at the London Olympic Games, at
the Olympic Games in Brazil, Colombia no

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longer has a supremely dominant athlete in
a discipline, as happened at the time,

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with Mariana Pajón in bm X or
Caterina Bargüen in triple jump, what

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I do see are many potential medals
in terms of soon bronze silver. With

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the case of Lorin Arena, making
marches, a possibility Natalia Linares in long

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jump could be a surprise this whale
athlete, who has given a lot of

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what to talk about and who can
be, as we say, the big

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surprise to Colombia those Olympic Games geni
arias and Ingrid Valencia in boxing already know

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what it is to get a medal, So they are also important cards of

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our country and, of course,
let us not forget to lift weights,

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where Colombia always has representatives. We
have Luis Javier Mosquera, who was already

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present with Olympic medal in Tokyo,
we also have GeniaÁlvarez, who has

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done very well in the female branch, more particularly lifting weights fifty- nine

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kilograms. So I do see possibilities
for Martaba medal. Me in cycling or

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that whole vink. There are the
possibilities of the medal, but the gold

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I do not see as clear as
many people and they could see it as

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expected in the estimates of the Ministry
of Sport of the Colombian Olympic Committee.

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Alterophilia, that is, weight lifting, is discipline. What more medals he

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' s given the country. From
cinema and two thousand to Tokyo two thousand

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twenty, the Colombian pesists have hung
nine medals, two gold medals, four

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silver medals and three bronze medals.
Only in the World Heavyweight Cup that took

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place in Pucket, Thailand. Last
April, Colombian pessist Jason López won a

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gold medal with a world record of
a hundred and eighty- two kilos and

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obtained silver in sending two hundred and
ten kilos, reaching a total of three

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hundred and ninety- two kilos.
I assure you of your position in the

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ranking one place for the Olympic Games
in Paris two thousand twenty- four.

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In the Pan American games that took
place between October and November of two thousand

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twenty- three, the Colombian participants
won six medals, three gold and three

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silver. In the Parisians that were
made in Caracas. In February of this

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year, Colombia won the competition with
twenty- five gold medals, ten silver

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medals and seven bronze medals, and
at last year' s World Weights Championship,

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the women' s delegation won the
champ and won two gold medals,

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eight silver medals and three bronze medals, but at the Olympic level the country

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is ranked twenty- two medals,
with Russia being first with eighty- nine

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medals. Of course, we are
the Latin American country with the most medals

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and this sport, but despite the
fact that heterophilia has given the country a

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majority of medals, it is not
even close to the most popular sport.

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Otherwise it happens, for example,
with football, a sport that has amateurs

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in heaps, but that at Olympic
level has not had glories. He has

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participated only in five New Mexico Games
one thousand nine hundred and sixty- eight,

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Munich one thousand nine hundred and seventy- two, Moscow one thousand nine

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hundred and eighty, Barcelona one thousand
nine hundred and eighty- two and Rio

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two thousand and sixteen. It was
in the latter that the Olympic football team

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had its best performance, reaching quarterfinals
and falling to Brazil. In previous years

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it never went beyond the group phase. The women' s selection of this

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sport has participated in two versions of
the London Olympic Games two thousand twelve and

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Rio two thousand sixteen, in which
they failed to pass the group stage.

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This year will be your third participation
and hopefully you can do better. Why,

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being the most popular sport, we' re doing so badly in football

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at the Olympics. I looked for
journalist Hernán Peraez to help me resolve this

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concern and this he told me has
always gone wrong in football in the framework

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of the Olympic Games, where we
went for the first time in a thousand

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nine hundred and sixty- eight,
to the Olympics in Mexico, and it

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goes wrong because we continue to stick
to an ancient principle of just competing,

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not being protagonists and less having ambition
to win a medal. We have had

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some selection of good game, such
as the one of one thousand nine hundred

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ninety- two in the Barcelona Olympics, but really the interest of the leadership

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when talking about its twenty Olympic Games
sub seventeen is to look for a way

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to send footballers abroad. And in
that regard, technicians often give contentillo to

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so many observers, managers, club
presidents. That is the serious problem we

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have perhaps in a more serious time, Colombian football aspires to win, not

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just to compete. On the other
side. There is a sport in which

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we can consider ourselves power, which
have thousands of fans and with which we

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have achieved some medals. And cycling, after football, where they have made

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them, a feminis Da has eighteen
Cupus. Cycling is the sport with the

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most representatives of the country, with
seven classified. Here it competes in two

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categories, track also known as Kevin
and route. In the track category,

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the cyclist María Luisa Calle hung the
bronze medal in Athens two thousand six.

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In the route category, Colombia has
a silver medal, which the cyclist Paice

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Rigoberto Urán achieved in London two thousand
twelve, after losing the gold medal in

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the final meters against the cyclist Kazakh
Alexander Vino Kunov. If Rigo decides to

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participate in this year' s Olympics, something that is in doubt about the

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birth of his son, which would
be in August, he would become the

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first Colombian athlete in history to compete
in five consecutive editions of the Olympic Games

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from two thousand eight to two thousand
twenty- four. On the other hand,

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there is the bm X, a
young sport and at the Olympic Games

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it premiered just in Beijing in two
thousand eight and in which Colombia has three

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medals, two gold and one silver
that Mariana Pajón won in London two thousand

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twelve, river two thousand sixteen river
two thousand twenty, a crack really,

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and although those medals are very important
for the sport history of the country,

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comparing them with the tradition and the
record of the road cyclists of the great

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competitions, like the Chinese of Italy, the tour of France the return to

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Spain, seem little. I then
have a doubt why, if we have

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such good exponents in cycling, the
country is not the power of this sport

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in the Olympics. He' ll
take you from the question to the Qatari

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cycling expert and this explained to me
in the route cycling. The Colombian runners

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have stood out in the stage races
in the one- day races that run

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classic type. Those run very differently
because of our topography and our altitude.

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We are more powerful in high mountain
racing. Races like the one- day

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Olympics are not high mountain races,
because they have to combine all the terrain

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there. Then what is needed is
runners with a lot of resistance and explosiveness.

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In addition, a lot of strategy
is needed to run intelligently and for

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that strategy they need equipment. But
the quotas that each country has for the

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race are given by the ranking of
the UZZI and we have rarely had the

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full quota to run. We always
go with one or two runners and so

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it' s very difficult. For
example, in the London Olympics, Ringoberto

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Urán and Sergio Enaón were smart and
were able to read the rigo race for

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a few meters if they did not
look back if they took the gold.

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At the Rio Sergio Olympics in Au
he was on the run and in the

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last few kilometers, on a curve
that had the pear upside down, he

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was following the wheel of Nibal and
there he lost all the possibility of gold.

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There is a sport that Colombia is
considered a power in which athletes have

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won all the skating. The national
skating team has achieved the title of world

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champion on eighteen occasions, of which
twelve were consecutive. Attentive to this impressive

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figure, Colombian skaters have won a
total of seven hundred and seventy- three

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medals, three hundred and sixty-
five gold medals, two hundred and thirty

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- four silver medals and one hundred
and seventy- four bronze medals. And

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one of its main stars is the
expatinadora cartagenera Cecilia a la Chechi and baena

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in his showcase. The Chechi has
six gold and silver medals from the world

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championships from the year two thousand to
two thousand six. Less than two thousand

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five and three gold medals from the
Central American and Caribbean Games. Despite all

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this impressive list of sporting triumphs,
Colombian skaters do not have Olympic medals because

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speed skating is not an Olympic sport. Why good it turns out to include

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a sport in the Olympic Games list
It is not easy, and there is

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a long list of other sports federations
along with skating as karate baseball, which

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expect to be included. Iván Vargas, coach of the National Skating Team and

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trainer of wolf Skate, told national
radio that speed skating cannot be included by

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the tough competition and lovic of other
sports. This is what Vargas said to

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be included in skating in the Olympic
program. It has a very high political

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connotation. Not one hundred and five
members of the international Olympic committees who have

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to vote for a sport to be
included in the Olympic programme. And behind

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that vote, because there are a
number of aspects that you know very well

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that soon the loby All these kinds
of situations have not allowed Colombia to make

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it necessary for it to finally be
admitted to the Olympic Games. This answered

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me Cecilia the cheche and Vaina,
ex- patinator and multiple times world champion.

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To the reasons why I consider that
race skating is still outside the Olympic

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Games are the following. First,
despite the fact that the five continents are

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already practiced, participation in the world
championships is very low, from about thirty

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- three to thirty- five countries. Secondly, that we do not have

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a great international sponsor, the International
Federation and in world championships there is no

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global television, there is no big
sponsor and for the olympism industry, I

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think that has a lot of weight. Third, the standardization of scenarios and

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careers. Sports scenarios in all countries
are still catching up with that scenario standardization

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regulation and I think it' s
just a compelling reason. Also, Fourth,

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the Power countries have taken their world
champions on wheels to the ice,

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because there they do have the possibility
to give Olympic medals to their countries,

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so that has caused those athletes to
migrate and racing skating has been left without

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those figures worldwide. Unfortunately, despite
the hegemony that Colombia has in the world

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events we see in the world championships
winning gold medals more than thirty- three

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gold medals against countries like France Italy, which win two or three in the

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medal box. That shows that Colombia
is doing its job well, that Colombia

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is preparing very well, that it
has a great sponsor, that they have

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television, but the other countries,
for those reasons, to migrate their athletes

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and put all their focus on the
ice where they can win the Olympic medals,

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that has made that unfortunately, skating
is without that possibility and despite all

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those medals, trophies and championships won, being a sportsman in Colombia is not

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easy. It is well known that
getting sponsorship support to participate in international championships

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or simply to train, is very
difficult. A recent example is that of

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boxer Jubertgen Martínez, winner of the
Silver Medal of Rio two thousand sixteen.

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In March, Martínez denounced in a
radio snail program that the Ministry of Sport

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stopped giving him financial support for eight
months. Other sportsmen, such as sprinter

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Johnny Rentería, also denounced Instagram account
that the Ministry of Sport has not paid

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for their incentives. In addition,
they owe them the Bolivarian, South American,

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Central American and Pan- American medals
of the Olympic cycle. Let'

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s hear a fragment of what he
said. We have a question about what

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is going on with our economic stimulus. It is a very important year where

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the most important fairs in the world
come, where the month of January,

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February March has not generated any of
the payments of many athletes. We haven

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' t communicated with the Ministry and
they don' t have the resources to

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pay us. Something similar denounced the
Olympic disco launch athlete and gold medalist at

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the Central American and Caribbean Games,
Mauricio Ortega, who complained about the Ministry

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' s negligence with the country'
s high- performance athletes. In March

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of this year, athletes such as
Judoka and Olympic medalist Juria Albear, former

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world champion Cecilia Baena, and former
Tour de France rider Victor Hugo Peña,

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addressed a letter to President Petro and
the Ministry of Sport in which they called

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for the creation of a national sports
table and pointed out the lack of effort

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in the sport budget. And if
there is a portfolio that has had problems

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it is from the Ministry and the
sport that in the almost two years of

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President Petro has already had three different
ministers and several scandals. First was the

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departure of a former minister of Olympic
medalist, Mar Isabel Urrutia, whom the

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President himself declared insubstantial due to his
actions indelicate with the budget of the Nation.

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Then he came to Stripth Rodríguez,
who resigned in February of that year

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because of the scandal over the loss
of the headquarters of the Pan American Games

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of two thousand twenty- seven in
Barranquilla, and in March Luz Cristina López

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was positioned, although it makes sense
that a minister in this portfolio does not

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last long if the work environment is
as tense as President Petro did, who

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considers the creation of that portfolio to
be a mistake. I haven' t

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exactly seen the goodness of doing that. I can' t find him.

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Looks like it' s more of
a waste of time, but that'

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s the rule. In sport it
weighs more bricks than education. That makes

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a sense. The more bricks the
more corruption is contracted. There and that

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constant change of sports ministers has caused
the processes with federations and athletes to be

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interrupted. The former president of the
Colombian Olympic Committee, Baltasar Medina, told

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the Journal the following time to Bro
Comillas. Every seven months a minister is

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not a guarantee that everything is well
separated. Processes are changed, everything is

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rebooted almost from scratch. That for
the national plan of sport subtracts does not

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add Comillas closure. And while President
Petru says that more brick means more corruption,

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the country' s sports arenas are
precarious. This was especially seen in

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last year' s national games,
which took place on the Cafetero axis,

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when, according to a chronicle from
the country' s daily newspaper, the

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athletes of their quash who opened the
day arrived in an unfinished building with still

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armed scaffolding and polyshadow on the outside, with construction materials abandoned here and there

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and tools crammed into the rest area. Many of the common spaces inside the

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building were sealed with plastic yellow ribbons
with the phrase of danger do not pass

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and according to the prosecutor' s
office, the tennis courts of the field

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in Pereira, the Colosseum Major and
the skate track of Manizales, along with

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the water complex of Armenia and other
scenarios, failed to be completed in time.

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In addition, some of them experienced
delays of almost eighty percent in the

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execution of the works. I see
all this news and I can' t

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help but wonder what many have already
wondered, what needs to be done to

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further boost Colombian sport? This was
told by Pedro Aguirre, the executive director

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of Legas and Sports and project consultant
for the Olympic Movement. It is a

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reality that there is much to improve
sports processes. The flaws are given special

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for bureaucratic matters that sometimes delay support
for athletes, coaches and in generating the

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institutions that lead the sport in the
country. To go is not the biggest

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challenge. Once an athlete begins to
give results, he enters the support programs

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of both the nation and his department
and is almost nothing short of them.

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They have the financial support of trainers, physio psychologists who are constantly accompanying them

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around the world in their preparation for
the great competitions. Of course, with

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failures of improvement opportunities with occasional delays
and discomforts, but in general, on

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the continent we are a country that
stands out in the preparation and competition processes.

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The challenges are especially in supporting talent, in strengthening prospects processes, in

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their sports projects, accompanying athletes'
families and investing in the regions, in

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improving infrastructure and modernizing sports equipment,
in giving them more national and international skills

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for young people and working hard in
their mentality. This requires consolidating the system

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of sport at the base, clubs, training schools and leagues, training and

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bringing knowledge in sports where we lack
much, because it is working in conjunction

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with the structure of education, that
is, schools and universities that are generally

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not flexible with sport, are long- term bets and it is proven that

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they have resulted. This must come
with public support and infatuating the private sector

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with a solid program, with visibility
and fascinating stories. It is a combination

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of factors for a ruse to reach
a competition like an Olympic Games in the

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best way. But the most important
is that it has been part of a

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long- term process, that has
prepared it and mentalized it for high competition.

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I have the confidence that Colombia will
do well in Paris two thousand twenty

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- four, as well as the
great results we had in London two thousand

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twelve, in Rio two thousand sixteen
and Tokyo two thousand twenty. Being a

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high- performance athlete in Colombia is
a double effort. First, because it

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takes discipline, on time and dedication
to achieve, compete and win everything they

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earn on behalf of the whole country. But, moreover, it seems that

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they must achieve all this without guarantees, without inappropriate conditions, with a short

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professional life that asks them to stay
young and in an ungrateful manner, despite

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medals, trophies and championships. That
is why all the achievements of our athletes

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are worth twice as much, although
they should not have to be. I

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' m Roberto Pombo. This was
chapter 90 of my questions. See you

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in the next chapter from now on. This chapter of my questions is available

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on all podcast platforms. This episode
was made possible by Kafan. Family compensation

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00:28:26.359 --> 00:28:33.359
box. Dirección Roberto Pombo, Producción
General, Juan Abel Gutiérrez, Asesor editorial,

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00:28:33.559 --> 00:28:38.559
Daniel San Pedro Espina, Guiones juan
Abel Gutiérrez y Johnny Rodríguez. Field

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00:28:38.599 --> 00:28:44.839
production Marcela Salazar and Lucía Beltrán.
Post- production of audio Carlos Bernar