The Paris Olympics are over and, thanks to the non-existent time zone and the holiday period, we enjoyed them almost entirely.
And I say “almost” because – without the Discovery+ subscription – it was not possible to watch all the competitions.
Basically, RAI made precise journalistic choices and – in the 360 hours of broadcasting they had available (Discovery had 10 times as many) – they put in what they thought was most important, especially in relation to the (Italian) athletes competing.
This means that if there was a particularly interesting handball or badminton challenge or an exciting bmx race, there probably wouldn’t have been a chance to see it.
Is this a controversy? No, it is not. It is completely normal (and understandable) for things to be this way.
A generational controversy
The controversy was another one, and it is almost a generational controversy but with a result that left me positively amazed.
Yes, I’m talking about the controversy triggered by Elisa Di Francisca after Benedetta Pilato (who is 19 years old) swam the 100-meter breaststroke in 1’05″60, finishing fourth, just one hundredth off the podium.
E, interviewed by Elisabetta Caporale while she was in tears, she said they were tears of happiness and explained that they were (and I quote her here) “because a year ago I wasn’t even able to do this race, at the Worlds I didn’t compete in the 100, in Tokyo three years ago I was disqualified. I found myself in the side lane, which usually doesn’t happen to me because either I’m not there or I’m in the middle. And I must say that I pulled my balls out, swimming a completely different race than in the batteries and semifinals… Then of course, that hundredth I’m sorry.”
Elisa Di Francisca’s (former fencer, individual and team gold medalist at London 2012) comment was stunned.
She said, “Don’t let me talk I didn’t understand anything about it, I don’t know if she does or she is.”
Then he added, “It’s absurd, surreal this interview, I have to be honest. She didn’t want to go to the podium so what did she go there for? I shudder.”
She then justified herself by saying, “That’s how I am, irreverent, unfiltered. What I say I think, if you meet me while having tea or on TV. So many people call me a str…, but I don’t wear a mask. And in any case, better they take it out on me than on Pilate.”
Should one always say what one thinks?
This gives rise to two reflections.
The most peripheral to the matter is that “speaking one’s mind” is often considered a positive aspect.
Being unfiltered and forthright is frequently considered a virtue; but is it really?
That is, in everyday life, does “honesty regardless” make sense, or does living in society require knowing how to moderate oneself?
After all, to paraphrase the saying, the freedom of being sincere ends where the freedom of the other person to feel insulted begins.
But this is a broad discussion that perhaps we will address another time, however, I find it an interesting point.
The second reflection, much more related to the sports theme, is that a new generation of athletes is emerging who are much more “people” and much less “performance automatons.”
And this should also help us to appreciate their performance when we are sitting on the couch with the remote control in our hands because they have a more complete dimension, they are PEOPLE and not times.
People with an inner world like ours, sometimes very complicated, who make a lot of sacrifices to be there, on the other side of the screen.
Incidentally, anyone who swims knows very, very well that doing 1’05” in the Olympic pool – breaststroke – is something that almost all of us cannot even imagine.
Which, of course, does not mean that we cannot have opinions or curiosity in watching the races, but we must always remember that -behind the time marked by the stopwatch at the finish line- there are months and years of sacrifice and, above all, there is a mental and emotional component that is part of the intimacy of the athlete.
A new type of athletes, more complete.
The athletes and female athletes of the future.