My fave athletes, part I

My favorite athletes

My whole life I’ve been surrounded by sport. I have to admit I am certainly no athlete, however, my mother worked in several sportive institutions, my grandmother, my stepdad as well. I’ve been avidly watching the Olympic Games since 1992, I have them on tape. I love to see athletic confrontations, I think sport is aesthetically pleasing as well. Many athletes inspire me and motivate me. There’s probably more to just that, but I’m not going to PopPsychoanalyze myself. I like sports, there’s a few athletes I like, and that’s all there is to know. Now, let‘s go see the list.

Ana Guevara. Mexico. Athletics. Olympic Achievements: 2004: silver, 400 m. Mexico’s only version of a true sports hero. After so many let downs and disappointments, I had chosen to follow Mexican sports from a very pronounced distance. It was a container of nothing but losers. Guevara has represented a shift in that curse, things do change, indeed. She loves to be the top, she loves to win, and does it. She’s also a human being, so she’s also experimented crushing defeats, and specially, the dismissiveness of the ignorant, who just point out her looks as a factor of judgement. Poor little Mexicans, they’re soooo used to being losers, that they immediately expect the winners to lose so they can crush them like insects. Fortunately, Guevara is beyond that and in a whole other league.

Franziska van Almsick. Germany. Swimming. Olympic Achievements: 1992, 96, 2000 & 2004 Olympian: 4 silver, 6 bronze medals. Ah Franzi, I have sort of ‘grown up’ with her. She was a young girl in Barcelona ‘92, and I remember watching her compete and think, ‘who’s this German babe’?. Since then she’s become one of Germany’s biggest athletic heroes, and because of her very lucrative sponsorship deals, a very wealthy woman. Her swimming stopped being all-around fabulous in 1996, and it’s been a struggle between being a mediocre swimmer and a world-record holder. She’s about to retire, and that means she won’t be Olympic champion; although having 10 Olympic medals in her collection doesn’t sound too bad. I like Franzi, like a few other millions do.

Marian Dragulescu. Romania. Gymnastics. Olympic Achievements: 2004, 1 silver, 2 bronze. An extremely talented gymnast, a wonderful personality, and one of the most beautiful things to ever have walked on planet Earth, I’ve been following Marian’s career since it started to notice in the late ‘90s. Romania was known for the greatness of her female athletes, and just for the individual-apparatus talent of its male ones, but Marian quickly established himself as something different, and now is one of the best gymnasts around, and certainly of the most popular ones. He can be right on the money, hitting his routines with perfection, or he can come apart in seconds. Either way, he never stops smiling.

Ian Thorpe. Australia. Swimming. Olympic achievements: 2000 & 2004 Olympian, 5 golds, 3 silvers, 1 bronze. One of the world’s finest athletes. It’s just amazing how he moves underwater, it looks pretty much effortless. He’s a great champion, and fortunately doesn’t have the attitude that goes with it. I started to like Olympic swimming back in 1988. I remember they replayed Vladimir Salnikov’s 1500 m race, which he had won back in 1980, and then pretty much did upset the favorites to win it again; it sure was a thrilling moment, and lots of praise descended into the Russian giant.

Las leonas. Argentina’s Nat’l Field Hockey Team. OIympic achievements: 2000, silver; 2004: bronze. This girls sure know how to kick ass. Against all odds, and working very hard, team Argentina made it to the top of their sport, and do so with such passion and commitment, they’ve earned the nickname “las leonas” or lionesses. These girls are very inspiring as they never give up; they know they have to be real good if they want to make it in their financially unstable country.

Amanda Beard. United States. Swimming. Olympic achievement: 1996, 2000 and 2004 Olympian: 2 gold, 4 silver, 1 bronze. She’s the swimmer with the most radical transformation I’ve seen in an ahtlete. In 1996, she was a geeky-looking teenager with big teeth. She looked like a nice girl and was blessed with such talent that she went on to win 3 medals there. She seemed destined for more glory. Then nothing. Between 1997 and 2000 she completely disappeared from the world rankings and the medals. Resurrected just in time for Sydney, she got a rather surprising bronze medal there, and then it happened, she became a sexy, glamorous, photogenic and very winning young lady, amasing fans, medals and records. A bit of star quality brought to the sports of swimming. Athens was her coming out party, and a star is in front of our eyes!