They return home with a wide grin and exhausted features, welcomed by loved ones at the airport. Families, fans, friends. No official ceremony, because Ferragosto is usually for the ones who aren’t working. The next move for Olympic medalists landing from Paris, after a quick load of laundry, is to meet with mayors, regional presidents, and other officials for a photo op. One wonders what those officials do to deserve that smile, and the guess is not much. What they do for sport in general? The answer is very little, far less than they should. Natural talent, personal effort, family support, a brand sponsor, scholarships, and a touch of luck in the podium mix. After Paris, analyses arrive about what happened, why the haul of medals is smaller than in earlier editions. Smaller Caribbean nations pass them by proportionally, and one could wonder if it’s a matter of genetics, sparing a larger reflection on the issue.
Behind each medal there is almost certainly a family that has walked thousands of kilometers to get the child to training on the far side of the city, or to a regional or national competition, paying out of pocket. Another early morning on the weekend to cross provinces or an island, and back. In this country, sport does not appear to be a public health priority, does not come served on a platter, and is not inexpensive: the federation fee, the gear, and whatever else follows, until the moment comes to decide if a discipline can become a profession, which sits somewhere between possible and impossible. The politician in the photo, the person in the stands, has not signed off on the creation of a single sports zone for their city or region during the term, nor established a public sports school, nor created a fresh line of subsidies for clubs, nor expanded the offer of training courses, nor bothered to tidy shared spaces where citizens practice on their own. That politician believes abdominal muscles form themselves and medals fall from the sky, a matter of sheer will.
World Health Organization guidance recommends sixty minutes of vigorous activity for children each day. Various studies show that only about a third of kids meet this goal, while hours spent on screens continue to grow (three hours on weekdays, five on weekends). Even with a new educational law aiming to solidify a third hour of physical education in primary school, most schools still offer only two sessions per week. Sport as a compulsory subject, or as an extracurricular activity if parents can afford it, has been shown to boost students’ intellectual performance. Yet there is little sign of an Olympic spirit permeating schools. Some regions push to devote more time during the school day, but in many schools and high schools physical education receives the same attention as religious studies. The hope then is to secure many golds in Los Angeles.