One month after her debut, the Cordoban Noelia Martínez, like others, was informed that the State would pay only four tickets and that she had to manage her trip herself if she wanted to represent the country in the South American Indoor Athletics Championships in Cochabamba, Bolivia, one of the few chances of scoring points for the ranking. international. Finally fit, after two years of injuries, Noelia added adjusted help (provincial and municipal). She made it cheaper by flying almost without luggage from Buenos Aires to Salta. She then took the bus to Tarija and another plane to Cochabamba. The return trip was plane, taxi, boat, bus and final flight to Buenos Aires. “I felt like a hippie,” she tells me resignedly. She arrived exhausted to compete at height. Still, she won a silver medal in the 400 meters. Her body exploded upon returning. An MRI costs two hundred thousand pesos.
Like other athletes, Noelia had traveled to the previous South American with the help of the influencer Santiago Maratea. But the budget cuts of the new government worsens the situation today. Last Monday, the ice hockey teams were notified one month before their debut that there is no money to travel to the Pan American Games next March in Canada. The women have always obtained a podium in the last fifteen years, and in 2011 they even qualified for the World Cup, just like the men in 2021. “Silence and no attention,” lamented the players, who are now asking for support on the networks. “The crisis is understood, but not such late warning,” Juli Ríos, the last captain, tells me.
There is more. Iván Nikolajuk, Kevin Sabado and Iván Knorr launched collections and raffles to be able to compete in the South American archery competition in March in Brazil and in the Pan American Championships in April in Colombia. Your Federation, the State warned, will not receive “any type of financial support” in 2024. Another shooter, national and Pan American champion, launched a “contribution voucher” to also travel to the South American in Brazil, Under 21 category. “Hello, I’m Guillermina González,” she introduces herself on her networks. And she accompanies her resume. There are athletes who themselves took the pick and shovel to lay a track at the height of Cachi, in Salta, a promise unfulfilled by the authorities.
The rower Ariel Suárez, Pan American triple gold, Olympic diploma and Konex Award, said days ago that he himself is “begging” to help find accommodation for the national team that will compete in the South American Rowing Championships in Rio de Janeiro. Also known because in the middle of the pandemic he violated confinement to train at Tigre, Suárez, close to Patricia Bullrich, and who was cited in January as a possible candidate for Secretary of Sports, had euphorically greeted the beginning of the new government. “Thank you Javier Milei for not lying to us.” “If possible”. Last Thursday, he uploaded an image to Instagram of a man on a raft with a flag that said “SOS” and a very harsh text. “Sport without driving and drifting.” With 160 days until the Paris Olympic Games, he added, “we are in balls” and there is not even an Undersecretary of Sports. “They are only interested in the Public Limited Company in football clubs”.
Daniel Scioliformer Menemista, former K, now brand new secretary of Tourism, Environment and Sports (his appointment precipitated the resignation of Ricardo Schlieper, Undersecretary of Sports at the hands of Mauricio Macri), he was photographed days ago with representatives of 777 Partners, a Miami firm, and owner of Genoa (Italy), Standard Lieja (Belgium), Red Star (France), Vasco da Gama (Brazil) and Hertha (Germany) and with actions in Seville (Spain) and Melbourne Victory (Australia). “It is the first group that is officially presented” by the SAD Clubs project, Guillermo Toffoni tells me. The FIFA agent tells me that he is “the reference” of the Milei government “for the landing of investors”hunting for our centenary clubs.
The AFA and the clubs are opposed, but there are no major footballers who complain against the project that aims to convert our Civil Associations into SAD. A model with holes, yes, but one that won world titles and has stars all over the world, in addition to training and containing thousands of kids in times of broken social fabric. Nor are there any Olympic figures today (something like a Lali Espósito of sports) who complain about adjustments that will affect, above all, the athletes in the second platoon. The best scholarships (duplicated in some cases) are close to $400. Others tied to the minimum wage. Damaged, furthermore, by a super-devalued budget that, through crisis, cuts travel and training programs. And the voice of the Argentine Olympic Committee? Who represents the athletes? They tell me that the money, which is scarce, will primarily favor the elite who will travel to Paris.
Sport inspires and offers popular emotions. But it becomes a raw and closed world when the business of the outcome divides between winners and losers. Other arts (musicians, writers, etc.) can also be part of a “business.” But, in addition to entertaining, these arts, their expression, usually confront the established power. Remind us of those expelled from the system. Make us uncomfortable. In 2017, Donald Trump also wanted to impose cuts to culture and the arts in the United States. “We need the arts,” responded one critic in The New York Times, “because they make us better human beings. But we also need them as a protective factor against authoritarianism.”
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