A few weeks ago I got the chance to travel to Serbia and work with the New Zealand National Track and Field athletes that had qualified for the Indoor World Championships. The event was held in Belgrade, Serbia.
Getting off the plane into Belgrade and was immediately hit with the smell of cigarette smoke. It has been over a decade since I have been around the smell, so it was a bit startling. All the countries seemed to arrive at once, so there was a bit of chaos into getting to your hotel. Luckily they had a Serbian volunteer that helped with all the logistics.
We stayed at a hotel that allowed you to walk to the Arena. The fresh air was appreciated. It was hard to not be stuck by the giant concrete apartments buildings. They were all around. I've read research where the building style was purposefully built to drain your emotional well being. To create a type of depression. It works. Graffiti and trash peppered the landscape. Full disclosure: I never had the time to go into old town. I'm sure that was much cooler and full of history.
We took a bus trip to the practice track and witnessed a mass of riot police in full battle regalia lining the streets. We are talking hundreds and hundreds. Apparently they were preparing for a soccer game to start and finish. I was told Serbian Soccer games have a reputation for violence. Such a strange thing to witness.
The event and arena was great. Held in their national basketball arena. It held a lot of fans. The track had a fast middle straight for the sprinters and a comfortable, but not fast track for endurance events. The warm up area was excellent.
Hours spent in the warm up area working on the athletes I was with and watching various events warm up, I had some thoughts. Americans love warm up drills. Foreign athletes like games and easy going style of general preparation. The medal contenders are just physically different. No matter the coaching/training, to win medals, you have to be blessed with that extra. Listening to Marcel Jacobs do block starts had a different sound than all the others. The power was audible. The finalist had a different sound than the athletes that didn't make it out of the prelims. Grant Holloway, the same. I don't think you can achieve a medal without hard work, but I don't think you can get a medal with average talent and incredible work. They are special. It is easy to recognize the unicorns. Also, why I think travel sports are a bit on the silly side when it comes to kids under 14. Play lots of sports, lots of experiences. Cream rises no matter what. You can see special in a few minutes. If you have to ask if your kid is special, they are not. (harsh, but true).
You didn't see the open support of Ukraine in any of the places we were. This could be that it is very real there, or life is hard enough and you just don't have time to worry when life has enough problems in the current day. It raises the question if things like sport matter when things like war is going on. I think they do. Sport lets you see what humans are capable of. It lets the young dream and the old reminisce. There is a joyful escape in seeing effort. A respect for the work and sacrifice. There is something about wondering how far you can run, how fast you can do it, how high you can jump, how far can you throw that will always bring a sense of wonderment and curiosity.
Art is important. It strikes you when it isn't present. Even graffiti could be described as a impulsive call to break up the grey monotony of the concrete. Concrete, a feeling of being stuck. A lack of motion, we are, I am, not going anywhere. Sport and Art have a way to inspire and transport. The ability to create motion, to spark imagination. It's a shame that it is being cut from schools.
"The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making a life more bearable. practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your should grow, for heaven's sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possibly can. You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something." -Kurt Vonnegut
