The Golden Century

THE GOLDEN CENTURY By: Alejandro Mejía,11°

Today, Colombia is a factory that is constantly producing world class athletes of many different sports and disciplines. Many of them are ECVGIQTK\GF KP VJG GNKVG ITQWR QH VJG ŎDGUV KPthe world’ in their respective disciplines, but it hasn't always been like this. Colombian athletes have experienced major changes through the years, but these have been for good. There are many sports I can talk about, but my focus will be on the two main sports that are sticking out the most :soccer and tennis. It’s important for us, as Colombians, to understand the most important faces of these three disciplines through JKUVQT[CPFYJ[KUKVUQUKIPKſECPVVJGHCEVVJCVColombia is able to have some of the best athletes in the world.

Soccer, the most popular sport in the world and the most popular in Colombia too. Passion and intensity, are only a couple of many words that can describe how Colombians feel when it comes to this. Soccer arrived to Colombia at the start of the 20th century, but no one knows exactly what year. According to Mike Urueta, a JKUVQTKCPCPFLQWTPCNKUVVJGſTUVQHſEKCNOCVEJever disputed in Colombia was on August 6, 1904. Since then, a lot of aspects of the Colombian soccer started to change constantly, different leagues had appeared and disappeared,

committees had appeared and disappeared too, DWV KV YCUPŏV WPVKN VJG Ŏ'N &QTCFQŏ 'TC VJCVColombian soccer became a mayor thing. In 1948 there was a crisis in Argentina, were soccer players were on strike against the general Juan Domingo Peron because of several delays in payments. This is when Colombian clubs are able to sign different players from Argentina. They signed many excellent players, but the biggest star was Alfredo Di Stefano, which was signed by Millonarios F.C, a club from Bogota. He was the leader of one of the biggest projects in Millonarios’ history. He was then sold to Real Madrid, where he became a superstar. I know many of you are telling yourselfs, “he wasn’t Colombian, so this is not important”. Yes, Di Stefano wasn’t from Colombia, but beECWUGQHJKOKVYCUVJGſTUVVKOGVJCVC%QNQObian Club had some importance worldwide.

After this Era, Colombian soccer started to have problems again due to bad management from a lot of Clubs Presidents through the 1960’s. Colombian soccer didn’t have any worldwide recognition until 1975 when Colombia won second place in the Copa America. That Era that was the base for today’s soccer, which started back in the 1990’s. This is when Colombian as a team and Colombian players started to be recognize in Europe and USA. They were able to classify to the world cup, with Francisco Maturana as a Coach and with players like el Pibe Valderrama, Freddy Rincon, Faustino Asprilla CPF 4GPG *KIWKVC 6JKU RNC[GTU YGTG VJG ſTUVones to be recognized as important in some big clubs of Europe, USA and Mexico. After this era, there was a black period of time that noth

ing special happened. Now let's talk about today. Colombia has the best players in its history and the best team in history. We have Falcao being the leader of goals in the Colombian team in history, we have James being the leader of assists in the Colombian team in history, and both of them have worldwide recognition in top teams in Europe. Recently, Falcao was received in Istanbul by more than 25.000 fans of Galatasaray, being the 9th player with more receiving fans in history. Almost every single player of the Colombian Team play in important teams in the exterior. We are now used to see our playGTUDGKPIQPGQHVJGOQUVKORQTVCPVKPVJGſGNFand at the same time compete hand to hand with the best in the world, but this wasn’t common until some years ago.

6GPPKUCURQTVVJCVƀQYUVJTQWIJVJGXGKPUQHa lot of Colombians, even though it’s not as popular as soccer or cycling, has gained more popularity in the last decade than before. One of the most important tennis players of Colombian history is Ivan Molina. Many of you may not know who he is, just because Tennis wasn’t as popular in his time compared to what it is VQFC[ *G YCU VJG ſTUV %QNQODKCP 2NC[GT VQever win a Grand Slam. He won Roland Garros tournament in 1974, many years ago. Since then, the history when it comes to Colombian tennis players sticking out in the best tournaments has been very scarce until a few years ago. Not a lot of Colombian names have been important until the beginning of this century. Players like Santiago Giraldo, Alejandro Falla or Catalina Castaño have been important and are within the best single players in the history of Colombia. All of them have been important in this century, not before. Currently, Colombia has the best Double players in the world. Juan Sebastián Cabal and Robert Farah, who won the Wimbledon tournament, the most important of all competitions. They also were champions of the US open, one of the most important too. They did this not a long time ago, which ranked them as number one doubles in the world.

Tennis and soccer are just two of the many sports that world class athletes are currently representing us all in. This shows us how lucky we are to be living in the epitome of Colombian sports history. But why are we lucky? There are many reasons to be grateful that not only we are living this moment, but Colombia as a whole is too. In the past, our country was only TGEQIPK\GFDGECWUGQH&TWIVTCHſEMGTUUWEJCU2CDNQ'UEQDCT6JGſTUVVJKPI[QWJGCTFUQOGone say in the exterior when you mentioned %QNQODKC YCU ŎQJJJ EQECKPGŏ QT ŎQJJ 2CDNQEscobar. Yes, this still happens, but every time less and less. Today, when Colombia is menVKQPGF KP VJG GZVGTKQT [QW JGCT ŎQJJ ,COGU4QFTKIWG\YJCVCITGCVRNC[GTŏ1TŎQJJ'ICPBernal, excellent youngster’. All of this athletes are changing Colombia’s image around the world. This makes us feel proud of our country, were we come from. This is just one of the OCP[DGPGſVUDWVCPQVJGTJWIGDGPGſVQHNKXing this moment is the example for kids and the young population from Colombia. In the past, VJGKTKFQNUYGTGFTWIVTCHſEMGTU6JKUJCRRGPGFbecause this was the topic everyone talk about. Today, kids are able to admire players of all disciplines triumphing, which makes them real

ize there are many opportunities to succeed and DG JQPGUV CV VJG UCOG VKOG -KFU WPFGTUVCPFsports is a reality, and if you are really committed to your dream, you're going to achieve anything. The young population has many positive role models, which in the past they were more scarce. So, the moment currently living is positive in every way, and Colombia needs to keep up with this good work.