I just read an event in the newspaper that immediately suggested the topic of this column. Apparently there is no connection, but if we look at the bottom of the event, there is. Eriberto Gutiérrez Robles is a simple athlete from Abancay, the capital of the Apurimac department in southeastern Peru. With great personal and family sacrifice, he managed to represent his country at the 2023 Pan American Games in Santiago de Chile in the canoe discipline.

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To the pride of his city, he managed to win a bronze medal, which motivated the mayor of Abancay, upon Gutiérrez’s return, to schedule a tribute to him. All the mayor’s propaganda props were put into operation. Bands, parade, platform, scroll, medal, official’s speech, photographers, television cameras and caring and friendly journalists, ready to cheer the mayor.

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But things did not go as planned. The official made a speech, gave him a parchment and hung a golden brass medal on the athlete’s chest. What was not planned happened a few minutes later. Eriberto Gutiérrez requested the microphone. The mayor turned to him smiling, satisfied in advance with what should have been the thanks of the celebrant. Amidst the flashes of photographers and the sound of television cameras capturing the glorious moment of the mayor’s popularity, the athlete said this:

“My name is Eriberto Gutiérrez Robles, an athlete from the national canoe team. How ironic to receive recognition when the effort was only mine. Actually, Mr. Mayor, you denied me support then. This is my effort. Thank you very much,” said the athlete from the stage on the verge of tears, then took off the medal and left the diploma on the ground.

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The video spread throughout Peru. In an interview with a TV channel, Gutiérrez assured that he had asked the authorities of his native Abancay for help on several occasions and that they had replied that his request was “addressed to that area” despite the fact that in the municipality of Abancay, he said, there is no sports and culture promotion office.

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“This was the last straw. I had no intention of doing so, but I was overcome with indignation, and in order not to appear a liar, I told him to his face. It was something very sad for me. Well, all that remains is to turn the page and ask for sponsorship from private companies,” added the bronze Pan American, who lives in a shack without basic services, without electricity or water. “I come from a modest family. If I don’t get sponsorships, I will have to leave the sport and devote myself to my family,” he said.

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Don’t you remember the case of Glenda Morejón, the young Ecuadorian walker who trained with broken shoes and competed with a borrowed pair for the gold medal at the World Walking Championships in Nairobi in 2017? This girl, her family and her coach had to collect and work hard to raise funds for the trip to Kenya.

“The family and Glenda herself dedicated themselves to selling chocolates, sausages and other things at events. In addition, children from the Tarquino Altamirano Athletic School took over the collection. Support was also given by the Imbabura Sports Association. They gathered close

$1,200,” revealed Giovan Delgado from Guayaquil, her coach, who did not go to Kenya due to lack of funds and gave his student technical advice over the phone.

What happened to Glenda Morejón is the most symbolic, but not the only one. When she returned to the country, the official who denied her support was waiting for her with the same group of photographers and videographers from the Abancay episode. “Morejona’s achievement had universal resonance when it was revealed that she had been sent to the under-18 world championships to compete in shoes with holes. Today, in the hour of the Ecuadorian athlete’s greatest glory, some of those responsible for that shame are congratulating her, and tumultuously, through social networks. And the current public sports authorities in the country do not shy away from the opportunity to board the winning car ‘on the fly’,” commented Diario EL UNIVERSO on August 22, 2022, when the national walker won the world title at 35 kilometers. in Oman.

At the beginning of 2024, the fighter Lucía Yépez, one of the best in the world and qualified for the Olympic Games, traveled to Spain, where she will participate in the preparatory base, and then she will participate in the first Ranking series of the year in Croatia in search of points to remain in the world elite which is going to the Olympic Games in Paris in 2024.

This trip was supposed to be covered by the Ministry of Sports, but it seems that this state portfolio is in hibernation on vacation, so the funds were provided by a private company and the Olympic Committee of Ecuador. A few days ago, the athletes involved in the High Performance Plan publicly announced a request to delay their assignments. The Ministry shook off its usual sleepiness and paid what corresponds to October 2023, and promised to pay soon for the months of October and November.

The Ministry of Sports was established in February 2007 as the governing body for all sports activities in the country. The idea was applauded by almost all of us who are involved in this activity from various sides. We did not realize that the intention was dominantly political.

Those in power planned to establish a regime of thought that would control all segments of life in society. Sports was one of them. The coup de grace was the Sports Law of 2010, which put all the organizations of the national sports system at the service of the ruling political ideal.

Beyond the political stench of creating a ministry and issuing a statist law, some progress may have been made, but failure was announced from the start. The ministry was inaugurated with a gruesome episode about “cheque eaters”. All that came after that were accidents, until today. Ministers were mere amanuensis of power; small characters with character pretensions; Obedient managers like the one who attacked the Olympic Committee and 42 National Federations to take absolute power over the national sport and went so far as to shamelessly demand from the International Olympic Committee that his boss parade at the Olympics as president or flag bearer. Or that naive official who asked for 4000 million dollars for Ecuador to host the World Cup in 2030. Maybe we can talk about an exception.

Never, yesterday and today, was a specialist in sports administration with complete knowledge of the reality of national sports sought. Political opportunists, social climbers and hunters of publicity or fortune had the upper hand. And so we are in a mess with a thousand conflicts like the one at Barcelona SC, with subordinates resigning who say they have been threatened with death or accused of exerting undue pressure. And the minister on vacation. (OR)