On September 27, 2012, all eyes of the world will soon be on London, host the Olympic Summer Games. Since that time, the Parade of Countries has become one of the most wonderful events: 205 countries and dependencies with their Goodwill Ambassadors and sporting characters -from the tiny island of Guam (where America's days starts!), Africa's South Sudan (globe's latest country), and the Himalayan Empire of Bhutan to the United States of America and Bolivia, a country in one's heart of the South National continent.
When Bolivia's Olympic team, among Earth's smallest delegations, starts to march in to the London Olympic Arena, with its prime player (probably will soon be Claudia Balderrama, a lady battle walker) carrying the national flag - the original red, orange and green tricolor, I'll recall two things: By the 2nd 50% of the 1860s, Queen Victoria, among the most effective ladies in history, removed Bolivia from her earth chart after England's ambassador to La Paz, the country's capital, have been humiliated by Bolivia's known master Mariano Melgarejo. Subsequently, the South National place hasn't made lots of the globe's foremost Olympian players, but it had one of the greatest Olympic leaders in the whole history of sport. His title: Jose Gamarra Zorrilla, who was lionized by several foreign governments, from Taiwan and America to the Soviet Union and Mexico.
Bolivia-- Birthplace of Jose Gamarra Zorrilla
That landlocked republic of 10 million people, an independent place considering that the 1820s, is home to the River Titicaca-- among the natural miracles on the Planet- the ruins of Tiawanacu - remnants of a past civilization and named the "Athens of South America" - and also birthplace of distinguished people: Grammy Award-winning artist Jaime Laredo (among the few Latinos to get the National award), who popped up in the 60s and 70s together of the most respectable violinists in the Western Hemisphere. Jaime Escalante Gutierrez, who was immortalized in the film "Stay and Deliver" and was given the Presidential Medal for Excellence in Training by Leader Ronald Reagan in 1988. Other noted personality was Bolivia's literary magician Alcides Arguedas, among the most gifted experts publishing in the Spanish language. To many Bolivians, America's actor Raquel Welch Tejada, whose endless splendor has become a "prime secret", is just a "Bolivian" ;.Why? Welch's father was Bolivian (Armando Carlos Tejada Urquizo, an Americanophile).
On another give, the nation's capital, La Paz, may be the world's best capital. 해외축구중계 That great area, a lot more than twice the area of California-The Fantastic State, is popular for its mountains of great splendor (where you can skiing like at Insbruck, Austria!) and wild-life national areas, along with their old-fashioned party and music. But at the same time frame, however, their history is noted for their known dictators as Melgarejo... and their status as among the two poorest and least developed areas on the National mainland considering that the late 1890s---life expectancy is among the cheapest in the establishing world.
With this political background, the country's game hadn't a chance to build an Olympian program till 1970. However despite all that, in the 1940s, that sparsely-populated area made a highly skilled all-around player named Julia Iriarte, ---"Latin America's Fanny Blankers-Koen" and regarded as being the best Bolivian player of most time--- who grabbed the interest of many Latinos when she acquired a complete of nine medals in the multi-sport Bolivarian Games -a kind of South National Olympics-in the Peruvian capital of Lima in 1947: five gold ( 80m hurdles, shot put, discus throw, high jump, extended jump) and three magic (50mts, 400m relay, and javelin throw). Despite a lack of professional education, that "super-woman" had the difference of being among the first girls to get nine medals in a single international event.
A Sporting Innovation in Bolivia
By the first 1970s, Jose Gamarra Zorrilla was appointed chairman of the Bolivian Olympic Committee (COB), in a landlocked republic with a enormous indifference to sports. From then on, he, with a heart of self compromise, labored whole his life to enhance the game in his motherland.
That rich-mineral place seemed to emerge from their worst Olympic history when Mr. Gamarra persuaded Bolivia's mind of state Hugo Banzer Suarez, who ruled between 1971 and 1978, to promote game and to transform the republic into an "Olympian nation" ;.Happily, he not failed to market the idea to Banzer. In those days, the Leader appointed to his case individuals from politics, diplomacy, and business rather than the military. On April 3, 1973, a government decree was promulgated, providing game formal status and guaranteed in full federal backing. In fact, Gamarra was inspired by France's Baron delaware Pierre delaware Coubertin, the founder of the Contemporary Games and whose a few ideas changed the world toward the end of the 19th Century.
Against all chances, Gamarra, an economist-turned-sports chief, had attempted to maintain the government's fascination with the cause of sport. However, it absolutely was a difficult vision: game was not a high concern for Latin America's military rulers with the exception of Argentina's 1976-1982 military dictatorship. Once the Uruguayan warlords stumbled on energy in the 70s and 80s, the country's performance had declined in football international after recording two FIFA World Pot tournaments -with a kind of sporting immortality following a triumph on the host Brazilians in the finals in 1950-- and two Olympic championships in the initial 50% of the Twentieth Century, while Augusto Pinochet's Chile sent symbolic delegations to the Games, and Mr. Alfredo Stroessner's government was unable to host the 1982 Women's Hockey World Pot in Paraguay, in the wake of being named as host in the late 1970s.
Right after assuming the presidency of the National Olympic Committee, Gamarra built fast steps to create a brand new sporting program, sending athletic delegations to the Summer Olympics (Munich'72 and Canada'76) and Pan National Games (Mexico City'75). However, one of his true key jobs was increased government attempts to market physical education and sports in public areas colleges, changing attitude toward game and paving how you can the nation's Olympian future. Then, he served La Paz to carry the 1977 Bolivarian Games, staging the best function in Bolivarian history. That Spanish-speaking republic had built some attempts to host the Games - a multi-sport function for competitors from six nations since 1938-- in the mid-1950s and 1970.
