1 Edición
Second Edition, March 2013
Candidate City for the Youth Olimpic Games
You are looking good!
Photo: Gabriel Buitrago
Thirteen thousand inhabitants of Medellín gave their city the gift of being extras in the video that will be a part of the videoconference that the 2018 Youth Olympic Games Candidature will
present before the Olympic Committee on wednesday, April 10th, as a definitive step in the YOG venue selection on July 4th this year.
Under the green sky of bikeways
Read in Medellín 2018: Páge 2. The most innovative city in the world. Baltazar Medina reelected on the Olympic Committee. Páge 3.Twentieth anniversary of Inder Medellín. The Atanasio Girardot was inaugurated 60 years ago. Páge 4-5. Medellin’s joy in the form of a video.
Páge 6. A snake rolls in the night. Photo: Gabriel Buitrago
Medellín rolls and walks among green tunnels, becomes 20 years old this month. It was the first through the bike lanes provided by the Institu- municipal sports institution created in the counte of Sports and Recreation INDER. This entity try.
Páge 7. Professional basketball is back. Páge 8. A photogenic city teeming with extras.
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The most innovative city in the world.
Moravia Cultural Centre, architectural work of Rogelio Salmona. Photo: Gabriel Buitrago
The use of technology to provide access to transport services, culture and education to its citizens, improving their quality of life, made the Citi Group and the Wall Street Journal, in partnership with Urban Land Institute, award the distinction as to Medellin “most Innovative City in the World”. This March, the mayor of Medellín, Anibal Gaviria, celebrated this important fact and said “it’s a joy for each of the 2 and a half million inhabitants. This is a historic recognition for our city, for our institutions and for all our people “ “We managed to change a brand associated with drug trafficking for the brand of innovation, which means that we solve problems,
we dare to change, we are able to unite as a society. This is a brand that we couldn’t have dreamed of a few years ago, “ Sergio Fajardo, governor of Antioquia, told reporters. On the website of Eafit University, its chancellor Juan Luis Mejia, explained the meaning of the distinction: “I think that the great value of this recognition is that we did not invent the metro, we did not invent cable cars, we did not invent escalators or bicycles, but the city has given all of these technologies that we’ve brought a social ownership and a sense of purpose for everyone and that is what is being recognized.”
Orquideorama of the Joaquín Antonio Uribe Botanical Garden
España Library Park Photo: Gabriel Buitrago
Photo: Gabriel Buitrago
Re-elected Baltazar Medina on the Colombian Olympic Committee “All I do is work for Colombian sports. The results obtained in London 2012 and other competitions say it all.” After those words and with a history of eight Olympic medals won during his tenure, in March, the Colombian Olympic Committee re-elected Antioquean Baltazar Medina as head of the organization until 2017 with 39 votes in favor and nine blank votes, out of 48 possible. Medina has a bachelor’s degree in Phy-
sical Education from the University of Antioquia. He practiced basketball, gymnastics and swimming. He has directed the Antioquean athletic sports leagues of basketball, football, gymnastics and baseball, as well as the Colombian Cycling Federation and he managed Indeportes Antioquia. By taking on this role, Mr. Baltazar Medina has set out to face the Olympic cycle with a view to achieve a similar or better performance in Rio de Janeiro 2016.
Director: Juan Camilo Quintero Medina. Editorial Staff: Esperanza Palacio Molina, Julián Ochoa Restrepo, Gabriel Buitrago Mejía, Luisa Villegas Bustamante. Editor-in-Chief: Esperanza Palacio Molina. Editing: Julián Ochoa. Photography: Gabriel Buitrago. Design: Eduardo Buitrago Echeverri. Official Medellín 2018 Newspaper Free Distribution Issue February 2013 Bid Address: Calle 48 # 73-20. Phone: 574-2606774 y 2606751 Publisher Address: Carrera 72 A # 45 E- 99. Phone: 412 87 83
Twentieth anniversary of Inder Medellín. 3
Medellín naturally on wheels
Photo: Gabriel Buitrago
Photo: Gabriel Buitrago
The Municipal Institute of Sports and Recreation of Medellin was created in March 1993, two years before the Sports Act established the requirement of such establishments in over a thousand municipalities of Colombia and since then it has been an model and reference across the country. It is seen as an example because of its management of spaces and because of its free programs with social sense. From the very beginning, Inder took on its tasks regarding management, promotion and development of sports and recreation as a whole to all corners of the city and its rural districts, establishing innovative programs, which today gather over half a million users on a weekly basis, highlighting the five bike lanes through avenues and the 6 neighborhood bike lanes, which, amongst tunnels of trees, bring joy and health to the lives of the citizens of Medellín. While officials had the task of assessing the whole country, the clarity of the design allowed the institution to be viewed as an entity recognized as optimal for citizenship from the start. Every time that the demanding Citizen Perception Survey led by private entities
Photo: Gabriel Buitrago
around the country is disclosed, Inder has always had an acceptance rate over 90 percent, alongside the Metro and Empresas Públicas de Medellín. Unique Programs Responsible for managing 836 venues and 18 satellite units where several disciplines are practiced, the Inder has 1876 people in its service, seven times as much as those it had a decade ago, and it has a marked a difference with other cities because its recreation programs and organized sports activities in addition to its schools of sports initiation and training hold healthy programs with standards established by the World Health Organization such as “Corazones saludables” (“Healthy Hearts”) in alliance with the Colombian Cardiology Foundation. Also, it serves the 35 to 50 year old population with night programs, aerobics and walks during nontraditional hours and it also has an inclusive program called “Mientras volvemos a casa” (“While we return home”) for the migrant population.
Photo: Gabriel Buitrago
The Atanasio Girardot is 60 years old.
Half of Medellín grew around the Stadium
At 12:05 on Thrusday, March 19, 1953, Jaime Rodrigo Ospina, laborer for Coltejer and player of the Antioquean team, brought joy to 35 thousand spectators when he scored the first goal at the inauguration of the stadium that was named after the only hero of Medellín’s independence, Atanasio Girardot Díaz. It was an afternoon of merriment. The local team defeated the America de Cali Club substitutes, 3 to 2.
It was a day that had generated great anxiety. Since 1947 the city saw largest construction to be built in the western side of the Medellín River grow, among 36 blocks, which were purchased by the Municipality. Soon, the property around it increased in value and in subsequent years the Atanasio Girardot stadium sector was the development center of a large area framed by Colombia and San Juan avenues.
Headquarters of the Centennial Club Deportivo Independiente Medellín and Atlético Nacional, Colombia’s first Copa Libertadores champion, the Atanasio, as it is called, is the central reference of Antioquean sport and the axis of a sports unit that houses venues for 53 different sports. The flames of the 1978 Central American Games and South American 2010 were lit at the Atanasio Girardot. It was the cohost of the 2001 Copa America and the FIFA U 20 World Cup in 2011. The Atanasio Girardot is approved to be the place of arrival of the Youth Olympic Games’ torch in 2018, as is the aspiration of Colombia.
Refer to: www.lopaisa.com/futbolanthistoria.html, www.viajeroteca.com/fds/index. php?idf=1448, www.es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estadio_Atanasio_Girardot, www.arqhys.com/ construccion/estadio-atanasio-girardot.html, 40 years of the Atanasio Girardot stadium, book by Carlos Emilio Serna.
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Being happy is no
Photo: Gabriel Buitrago
The city had 178 professionals in film and television that the local production company Contento Films deployed in four days by land and air in 30 locations of the city for the shooting of the official video for Medellín’s candidature for the YOG 2018, but what is really amazing is that thousands of inhabitants of the city came to the recording sessions, to express their commitment to the city and their desire to be chosen as the venue in July. The punctuality, patience and dedication of the extras of all ages and backgrounds facilitated the work of management and production. Indications were minimal and their role as those who transmitted the feelings that they have for their land did not require acting. It arose spontaneously as noted by journalists who tracked the recordings. So much so that in some places, after shooting, there were volunteers wanting to share their experience.
Photo: Gabriel Buitrago
As the video was being shot with nine thousand extras at the Atanasio Girardot Stadium, a brief dialogue with a student from the Liceo Concejo of Medellín was enough to know of the total commitment that citizens have to the candidature for the Youth Olympic Games 2018:
How did you feel? Normal ... happy! ... Normal ... very happy. Is it normal to feel so happy? When it is about things that speak well of Medellín, yes. What’s your name? No, don’t include my name, anyone can say the same ... Hey, when are we going to be awarded the venue?
Photo: Gabriel Buitrago
Photos: Gabriel Buitrago
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rmal in Medellín
Sara Arango Llano portrayed “Martina”
“I had never seen anything like it”
Photo: Gabriel Buitrago.
Brad Furman, filmmaker
Brad Furman is the filmmaker responsible for directing the video that will show aspects that Medellín would like to highlight as a candidate to host the Youth Olympic Games in 2018. In every mass media outlet he was reiterative in describing a virtuous chain, which he said he has only seen in Medellin, which surprised him and made him commit to this city and its people. Furman explains that Medellin not only has many cultural and recreational public spaces for the enjoyment of its citizens but also sports venues of excellent worldwide quality. These venues belong to the community. Also, they are not intended only for a few elite athletes, but for all citizens. He adds that, furthermore, they are free for all people. Finally, he says that the most important thing is that everyone wants them, respects them and feels that they are their own. Because of all of that, he considers that Medellín’s model is unique Photo: Gabriel Buitrago
The night rides a bike
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Say Yes to SiClas, parce!
Just as this spontaneous and colloquial title, Siclas was born. This is how Mauricio Mesa speaks when he tells us of the name of Colectivo SiCLas, “an idea born from a need to use bicycles as a means of transport and that refers to the happiness that it generates,” he explains. To get to know this citizens’ initiative, which welcomes hundreds of people into a world of night cycling, involves learning a new vocabulary, which allows us to understand that in 2009 “bike-user” Mariana Viles, proposed a “SiCleada” from the neighborhood Carlos E. Restrepo to the new Museum of Modern Art of Medellin to prove that this is a “rideable” city. And with the help of Facebook it began to grow into a snake every Wednesday, departing from “Carlosé”, it has covered 13 of the 16 communes of Medellin with over 800 cyclists ... sorry, “SiCleadores”, which, on the last night ride of the month, join the Bike festival called “Fiesta de la Bici”, on a massive bike trip with over three thousand attendees from many groups that share this form of expression and enjoyment of urban spaces. The Institute of Sport and Recreation of Medellín has night bikeways on Tuesdays and Thursdays at the Atanasio Girardot Sports Unit and along a circuit of 17.6 kilometers, parallel to the river, as well as managing ten bikeways on Sundays and holidays in different parts of the city. The Municipality of Medellín has a network of “bike paths” to the west of the city and announced that it will outline spaces on avenues to serve as “cycleable or rideable strips” or “cycleinclusive ways “ thanks to the Metropolitan Area of the Valley of Aburrá and the Public Bicycle System (SBP in spanish) and the free transportation program “En Cicla”, more new words for the dictionary of an urban center recognized as the most innovative city. Because it is their means of transportation and recreation in Medellin there are some people saying SiCLas parce!
Photo: Gabriel Buitrago
Every Wednesday, Medellín experiences the night of the cyclists. The spectacle of joy, jokes and singing lasts several minutes while the caravan passes.
Photo: Gabriel Buitrago
Photo: Gabriel Buitrago
The Carlos E. Restrepo neighborhood Boulevard was the origin of the first SiCLeada and is the meeting point and gathering of hundreds of athletes and citizens who use bicycles as cheap, healthy and environmentally friendly transportation.
The serpent of energy, health and happiness becomes the best motivation for those who join the passage of one of the bike rides, one of the most traditional citizens’ initiatives in Medellín.
Professional Basketball is Back!
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“Academia de la Montaña” is the team representing Medellin in the Directv Professional Basketball League, in which a hundred Colombians and 24 foreigners are participating. The first phase will end in April when two of the original eight teams will be eliminated. Once Caldas of Manizales, Búcaros of Bucaramanga, Piratas of Bogotá, Bambuqueros of Neiva, Halcones of Cúcuta, Aguila of Tunja and Heat of Cartagena, will compete against “Academia de la Montaña” to enter the hexagonal phase which will have another round robin double round, to aspire to the semifinal and final stages. The semifinal will face the first team against the fourth and the third against the second. The winners of 3 to 5 matches will play the final match, the champion of which will be the one that achieves four wins out of seven. The Champion will participate in the 2014League of the Americas of the International Basketball Federation, FIBA.
Steffon Farley, of “Academia de la Montaña”, reminds us of Michael Jordan, the best basketball player in history, as he soars through the air.
Hernán Darío Giraldo, técnico de Academia de la Montaña Photo: Gabriel Buitrago
Photo: Gabriel Buitrago
The core of the team is from Antioquia
Photo: Gabriel Buitrago Photo: Gabriel Buitrago
Photo: Gabriel Buitrago
With three foreigners and a core forged in Medellin with Antioqueans from several regions, the veteran coach of departmental teams, Hernan Dario Giraldo, formed the Antioquean team with Alex Londoño Espinal, Beykar Aguaslimpias Quiñónez, Carlos Agudelo Zapata, Cesar Chávez Jacobo, Cristian Castaño Londoño, Deiby Aguirre Herrera, Desmond Blue, Diego Gómez Arenas, Juan Londoño Barrera, Julio Contreras Pulgarín, Lincon Cristopher Aranzazu, Marlon Cataño Trejos, Norbey Aragón Mena and Steffon Farley. In the first week of April, the “Academia de la Montaña” will play four games in the Coliseum of the University of Medellin. On Monday 1st and Tuesday 2nd they will play against Búcaros Freskaleche. On Friday 5th and Saturday 6th they will face Caribbean Heat from Cartagena. The entrance fee is five thousand pesos and students of that University will have free admission. Photo: Gabriel Buitrago
Medellín, city of “Extras”
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Photos: Gabriel Buitrago
www.facebook.com/Medellin2018
@Medellin2018yog Photo: Gabriel Buitrago
It is easy to find great locations in Medellín for a good cinematic production. It’s hard to pick them without feeling bad for not including places that would show off this great moment of urban and natural landscapes in the city. The public spaces of the valley are very photogenic and the hillsides satisfy the most demanding cinematographer. As if it were meant to be portrayed, the city appears at all levels and shots as an added extra. And, in terms of the inhabitants of Medellín, the production team in charge of the video that will be presented by the city’s candida-
ture team for the Youth Olympic Games 2018 expressed pleasant surprise regarding something that they have only perceived in this city. Thousands and thousands of citizens wanted to participate with the sole aim of showing their willingness to achieve that dream and, as if they were seasoned actors, they all participated as extras in the video shooting sessions, which included 30 locations and which will be seen by members of the International Olympic Committee on April 10th so that they will have a better idea of the decision to be taken on July 4, 2013.
PRESENTAN L ibertad
y O rd e n