BOLZANO. There is a sport that goes beyond the order of arrival, whose times are not marked by a stopwatch, a sport where it is not important to win but not even to participate but rather to be there. It is the sport of children who learn to swim, of the elderly who through physical activity try to slow down the time that advances, that of those who want to keep fit in the body and especially in the mind. A sport almost canceled by the pandemic and often forgotten by the Dpcm. Daniela Giuriato, swimming instructor and pilates teacher as well as manager of a partnership that deals with the matter, has written an open letter of release and denunciation to not lose sight of “the other sport” and do something for this immense planet.
“Orandum est ut sit mens sana in corpore sano” Sat.X356 (“we must ask the gods that the mind is healthy in the healthy body”): often repeated or taken as a motto, never as in this period can it be ignored and not considered. This is a well-known sentence by Juvenal, a Latin poet, who had already realized the importance of this statement 2000 years ago. For a year now, the facilities dedicated to physical activity accessible to every category of the population, such as gyms and swimming pools, have been closed since March 2020, reopened in May with very severe restrictions and closed continuously in October until a date to be defined and voluntarily forget.
I would like to focus on closing these two spaces, leaving out all other activities, such as bars, restaurants and shops, because like theaters, gyms and swimming pools they have been classified as unnecessary or rather “superfluous activities”.
Up there, because they always think of those who decide on the upper floors, they have forgotten that diseases are also fought with PREVENTION and by prevention I do not mean washing hands, using disinfectant gel and wearing a mask where it would not be necessary, for example. in the car while driving alone, but by prevention I mean taking care of your body to stay healthy. In order not to get sick, a body must move and must be nourished in a balanced way as its thoughts must be healthy.
Where else can the whole population allow this? Certainly not the walk or the run behind the house, because not everyone runs and can do it. I am referring to the elderly, people with back problems and in Italy 15 million suffer from it, children, the disabled and the whole population who can find in the gym and swimming pool the ideal place to keep their body and mind. healthy. Because let’s remember that physical activity as well as keeping us healthy produces endorphins, which have the ability to give us pleasure, gratification and happiness, helping us to better tolerate stress.Each of the numerous associations that work in these places has its own specific sector that deals with the well-being of their members to whom they offer targeted physical activity.
I refer, for example, to those who offer gymnastics for the elderly, to school projects for disabled students, to those who teach children to swim (and here I would like to emphasize and remind you that unfortunately drowning in children is still one of the leading causes of infant death in the world. world after HIV and meningitis), to people in rehabilitation and to all those who need a guide to be able to move their body in an adequate and correct way, even if only for the pleasure of carrying out a motor activity that they like to the rhythm of music. So I mean the whole population. I also wonder why, only athletes who perform competitive activities can continue to cross the thresholds of gyms and swimming pools? Are other people different because they do not aspire to a medal around their neck? Isn’t the motivation enough that a healthy and detoxified body is very difficult to get sick and therefore is able to better fight a possible contraction of the infamous Sars-cov19 virus? Isn’t this also a form of prevention? Or is it a form of discrimination? So I wonder why these facilities have been closed and continue to be closed for so long. Is it scientifically proven that going to the gym and swimming pool, despite following health protocols, increases infections? I would like to read these researches if there are any, since it is a virus and it is with science and medicine that we must confront.Can’t the rest of the population also undergo swabs in order to access these facilities? in these days the nasal antigenic self-tests on an experimental basis (and already here the experimental and mandatory terms cannot be put together) to children and young people of elementary and middle schools in the Province of Bolzano, who, if they refuse to join the screening, will have to remain at home and follow the lessons in DAD in front of a PC.
Isn’t this another form of discrimination too? Rather, we use tampons to allow children to go back to the pool to learn to swim, dance, play volleyball, basketball or whatever else they like to do, as they already do. competitive athletes. The system adopted up to now to contain the contagion of the disease has failed on all fronts if after a year we still find ourselves in the same situation. The physical damage caused by closures sneaks into the minds and even becomes psychological, not to mention the economic ones. People who, like myself, work in this sector are in enormous difficulty. Their job is to teach how to swim, explain how certain exercises should be done, make people move, correct wrong postures and much more but in practice it is always helping and guiding them to keep mens sana in corpore sano, as other health professionals do. But they can’t do it, because they can’t work. Prevention is also and above all this, we must allow everyone to fight this virus through a healthy life, with motor activity, whatever it is, with food campaigns on how to eat healthy, already in elementary school to raise awareness among children and families . Italy is among the European countries with the highest excess weight values in the school age population with a percentage of overweight children of 20.4% and obese children of 9.4%, including the severely obese who represent 2.4%. We also know that obesity increases the risk of death and therefore also in case of complications in people who contract Sars-Cov19.
We are also aware of the fact that the “watchful waiting” treatment protocols and administration of drugs such as paracetamol and NSAIDs (recent sentence of the Lazio Regional Administrative Court of 4 March 2021) used by doctors up to now, has been deemed not sufficient to cure and stop complications in patients with the virus. So we can aim for those treatments that many doctors in Italy and abroad have implemented with valid and documented clinical efficacy, avoiding the degeneration into complications in the sick that lead to the crowding of intensive care in hospitals. react better to the treatments to which he will be subjected. The experimentation of a vaccine, because this is what is being done, certainly cannot be the only solution to the prevention of the disease.We must have courage and overcome the fear that the media inculcate in us every day, certainly without letting our guard down. but by strengthening ourselves in the body and consequently in the mind and spirit, regaining possession of our self-confidence and our freedom. The virus exists and we must live with it, with conscience and consistency. We have respected the rules in swimming pools and gyms, we have equipped ourselves when we have been allowed to keep open and we are ready to continue, but we must be given the opportunity to do so.
Daniela Giuriato
(swimming instructor and pilates teacher)