You heard it on No Te Duermas
In the radio program we spoke with Adrián Verdini, Secretary of Sports of the University of La Matanza, who referred to the Pan American University Games that are taking place in Cali, Colombia.
Tomás Modini
@ModiniTomas
At the beginning of the interview, from the heat of Colombia, Adrián Verdini said: “We are in Cali as the Argentine university team, we came to the Pan American Games. We are 100 people who came from Argentina with women’s volleyball, futsal in both disciplines, athletics, judo, weightlifting and today (yesterday) the competition is starting so it is an intense day.”
“Of the 100 of us from Argentina, 40 are from the University of La Matanza. The important thing is our coaches because the trainers are from the university that is representing the country today,” he added.
Regarding the goals they have, he said that “we came with many expectations, we always come to look for that gold medal, then the result depends on the competition, the day, how the athletes get up” and that “we came to win, then whether you do it or not is another thing, but the attitude is something that this delegation does not negotiate.”
The economic complications of traveling
On another subject, the interviewee lamented the monetary difficulty of many athletes: “We are even in all disciplines. When these situations happen and the teams are chosen, many times the coaches do not feel free to be able to choose and bring the best athletes, but rather a mix must be made between those who can represent the country and unfortunately those who can pay them. Because today we are 100 people representing Argentina and absolutely everything is self-financed by themselves.”
“They pay to come and represent the country. It is quite shameful what is happening with sports in Argentina, but this is the reality and people have to know it. When we went to Russia as a university invited by the Russian government, they paid for everything. In this type of event, historically, beyond the governments, the national government has been absorbing it through the Ministry of Education and a little of the Secretariat of Sports. Unfortunately, there are no resources for this now,” he said.
At the same time, he said that “there are kids who are better and if they don’t have the money, they don’t travel” and that “that is why it is difficult for our coaches and technicians to put together a team because you have to do it according to the priority of the economic.”
“Those of us who come from sports know that there is nothing nicer than putting on the shirt of your country, listening to the anthem, but unfortunately if the resources are not there, these things happen. But Argentina has a beautiful attitude, the kids are very enthusiastic and you have to play, the games are played,” he said.
“Sport has been abandoned for a long time”
In line with the subject, Verdini added: “I think that once and for all in Argentina we have to take off our masks and stop lying and really see what is happening. Because then we demand from our athletes, and I am even talking about what happened in Paris 2024 or what will happen in the next Olympic Games.”
“You have athletes who succeed and are ambassadors in the world, and the state did not help at all. They are all personal merits but everyone wants to hang on to that medal and that achievement, everyone wants to take the photo,” he added.
Before closing, he mentioned that “the truth is that sport has been abandoned to its fate for many years now. We have that attitude of winning because we Argentines are like that and we want to raise the flag as high as possible” and that “those personal and collective efforts are what is important.”
“There are many kids from here who got on a plane for the first time and that is the most beautiful thing about sports, those stories that remain forever,” he concluded.
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