July 31, 2021

11:07

Victória Sales – from Cenarium

MANAUS (AM) – Since July 23 until next August 8 this year the world turns its eyes to Tokyo, Japan, where the 2020 Olympics will take place. However, something much bigger than the competitions caught the attention of many fans: of the 300 athletes that make up the Brazilian delegation, only three are from the North region of the country.

There were only two athletes from the state of Pará, who competed in handball and athletic walking, and one athlete from the state of Roraima, who participated in swimming competition. The states of Rondônia, Acre, Amapá, Tocantins, and Amazonas were unable to take their athletes to the Olympics. In an exclusive interview to CENARIUM, the athletics professional, Sandro Viana, highlights that the lack of leaderships that understand the longings, the needs and mainly the reality of the region.

“For a long time I heard this as an athlete, that we had no representation and therefore we were not on the priority list. We have talent, we have champions, and we have raw material, that is, we have thousands of young people there who, if they have an opportunity, have a sidewalk, have a path to follow, they can indeed bring good benefits to the sport”, Sandro explained.

In addition, Sandro says that the North region has a geopolitical deficit that has been based on prejudiced issues such as distance. “The attention is inefficient for the issue of the North region, and the leaderships are not from here, so it becomes even more difficult if we take leaderships that are from other regions and put them to manage the North region, even with the greatest good will in the world, their guideline continues to be their regions”, he said.

The states that had the most representatives are those with the highest GDPs in Brazil. Among the 302 Brazilians registered for the Olympics, 108 are from the state of São Paulo, where almost a third of the value of the country’s economy comes from. Next come Rio de Janeiro, with 51 athletes, Minas Gerais, with 20, Rio Grande do Sul, with 19, and Santa Catarina, with 15. But despite the North having encountered difficulties along the way, the Northeast region will have greater prominence in the 2020 Olympics.

There are 17 representatives in athletics and 10 in soccer, and unlike the average in GDP, the region has athletes of great prominence as Rayssa Leal, the youngest of the Brazilian delegation, and who took the silver medal in Skateboarding. It is worth mentioning that in the Brazilian delegation there are nine competitors who were born outside of Brazil.

According to the volleyball coach, Alexandre Chaves, the initial difficulty is that the athletes from the North have little exchange and this directly affects the quality of the sport that is played. “We have a weak internal championship, where we have few games, be it volleyball or basketball, we have few competitions and, when we manage to send an athlete to participate in a national competition, this athlete arrives with a very low competition baggage”, he highlighted.

“The lack of resources to the athletes affected us directly, the athletes from the North region that demonstrably have less resources, and the sport ends up being a secondary activity that in their free time, when they are not working, they dedicate themselves partially to this modality in which he could represent our state”, lamented Alexandre.