Néstor Galarraga - The Power of the Warrior

Luckily, the time where the Argentine WT Taekwondo Confederation and the Argentine Olympic Committee were managed by military men and characters connected with the military dictatorship ended up for good. However, to us, ITF taekwondoins, nothing has changed so far, since argentine sports continue being managed the same way; it is a closed circle that cannot be accessed because no one is allowed in. A spurious business managed by a minority.

I do not want to make a complaint about the efforts and promotion of WT, which is a consolidated Olympic sport with its students and followers in many countries and, in our country, a well-deserved Olympic champion. However, while we share the same name and origin, we are two completely different sports. My claim has always been focused on the official recognition we deserve as a sport.

Be that as it may, as of 2010, there has been an paradigmatic change in the Argentine Taekwondo Confederation: its managing board set up a meeting with us —its executive president, Mr. Ricardo Torres, the vice-president, Mr. Ignacio Gontan and several members of the directive commission were present— they needed institutional assistance and that was the reason they had summoned us, quite ironic, they were trying to understand their own mistakes, to copy some aspects of our organization, given its sporting growth and development. We kindly agreed to meet with Master Alejandro Yapuncich and, for the first time in 30 years in a CAT meeting, members of both organizations sat to talk about sporting policies.

Moreover, we celebrate and feel very proud of Sebastián Eduardo Crismanich, born in the province of Corrientes and Taekwondo person, who has won the only Argentine golden medal in the London 2012 Olympic Games. Yet it really draw my attention that the Olimpia de Oro (Olimpia Award) was given to the prizefighter Sergio “Maravilla” Martínez, WBC middleweight champion, who was chosen as the best Argentine sportsman of 2012, by the Association of Sports Journalists, at the Rural Society of Palermo. I do not want to make a value of judgment but Martinez’s popularity, the sponsors (always tipping the scale a little bit…) or even sports journalists might have forgotten the value that an Olympic medal won in an individual event has and, at the time, they might have not been aware of the fact that Argentina has not won a medal of that kind in 64 years… A crying shame… Luckily, the captain of the Argentina men´s national basketball team, Luis Scola, handed over to Crismanich the waving of the flag in the Olympics closing ceremony. It was a grand gesture from Scola, but he did what he had to; Sebastián had won the first Olympic medal in an individual event in 64 years. And he should have also been awarded the Olimpia de Oro as well.

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