“There is in Japanese a word, a concept that encompasses the end and its beauty, “the beauty of the end,” the “beautiful ending.”
It is yūshū no bi 有終の美, which has the kanji of “end” (終) at the tail and, at the head, that of “being” (有). An expression that is used in conjunction with “beauty” which is bi (美).
I start from this beautiful pill by Laura Imai Messina, discovered during The Circle of Rings, for a reflection on the Olympics.
yūshū no bi is this feeling that lingers as we think back to the past few days, to the excitement, to the sports that pervaded our lives, to the athletes’ achievements, to the images that-unfortunately-told stories for which words were undoubtedly inadequate. And it’s wonderful how that feeling has remained and, I’m sure, will return from August 24 for the Paralympic Games.
For a little more than two weeks, all sports were given equal dignity, and we enthusiastically celebrated Vito Dell’Aquila’s medal in Taekwondo or Antonella Palmisano and Massimo Stano’s double gold in the 20K Marcia. Medals came a lot and we were all happy about it.
Will there be rejoicing in the long run?
I don’t know, but I have a feeling that there is still a serious systemic and political deficiency in sports. I am afraid that from September, when Series A returns, we will forget all these beautiful emotions and replace them with others, almost swiping up and moving on to the next picture.
Because, beyond the truncated proclamations of the presidents of many federations and football’s Seven Nation Army, Italy is a country that does not value sports. Or rather, he watches a lot of sports but plays them little.
Mind you, I don’t want to sound like a grumpy old man who is always disgruntled: I am very happy with the results achieved by Italian athletes at the Olympics, I too rejoiced in the victories, and great credit should be given to Jacobs, Tamberi and all the others for achieving extraordinary goals. But then questions arise, and out of them all, I have a couple that I can’t hold back.
Question 1 – How many more Gimbo Tamberi would we have if there was a serious sports program within schools?
Question 2 – How many more Marcell Jacobs would we have if athletic tracks were not constantly enclosed by gates 10 feet high?
Put simply and very simply: it is imperative that politics do something for sports. Because the 40 medals brought home by the Italian delegation, in my opinion, are not a representation of a functioning system but a recognition of the efforts of individual athletes.
After all, even in political strategy, this would be a good time to ride the hype and invest, right!
It is not necessary to create a nation of sportsmen; just start investing in youth and federations with specific programs. That is, to create a system that will grow the athletes we will take to Paris, Los Angeles and Brisbane (just to name the Olympics).
The English example
Examples of working systems are many, the British one above all.
We mocked them-“it’s coming Rome, again”-for defeating them in the 4×100, but it is a nation with a similar population to Italy and brought home 25 more medals than our delegation and fourth place in the medal table. Is this a case? No.
Britain has a sports program that started long before the 2012 London Olympics and it works. They used the emotional boost of the Olympic award to invest. And now sports are part of the daily lives of British people, not only for professional athletes.
We, on the other hand, renounced the candidacy of Rome as the Olympic venue. But I don’t want to get into this controversy; I prefer to have a positive approach.
We use the “yūshū no bi”
Let us make use of this beauty and, in some ways, give a damn about its merits or demerits. It is imperative to use this enthusiasm to move the world of sports forward, to make it systemic and everyday because the next Olympics is only 3 years away.
Arigato, Tokyo 2020. Bonjour, Paris 2024!
Main image credits: wavebreakmedia on DepositPhotos.com