Reminiscing 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games

By Jesus A. Garcia Jr.

 

LLORET de MAR, GIRONA, SPAIN – AFTER staying in this beautiful coastal town of Spain along Mediterranean Sea, for five days, my host and town mate Alex Moulic Lopez formerly from Brgy. Guesang, Mangaldan, and I traveled to Cerbere, France (passing through 23 towns and three cities – Barcelona, Girona and Figueres). We went to France not to watch the 2018 Tour de France but to see the countryside of France, a nation famous for its wine, brandy, cognac, whisky, and beer.  It was a long but nice journey on board the modern train of Spain.

But the most pleasurable part of our trip was our visit to the memorable 1992 Barcelona Olympic Stadium, a one-hour bus ride from this place. Memorable because my first child and my only cycling son Jazy paraded together with all the best athletes in the world at the stadium oval shaped eight-lane track. Recall that it was the Olympic where first US national basketball squad called “Dream Team” during the era of Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, Karl Malone, David Robinson, Patrick Ewing, Christian Laettner, Clyde Drexler, Chris Mullin, Scottie Pippen and John Stockton, all NBA’s superstars, which reigned as champion.

Memorable because the US boxer Oscar De La Hoya, a Mexican, won the gold medal in lightweight division that catapulted him to become world champion in 5-weight divisions. He now owns the Golden Boy Promotions in boxing. It also reminded me of the bronze victory of our very own Roel Velasco in the light flyweight class. It was the only medal won by the Philippines in the 1992 Olympics.  In cycling, Italian rider Fabio Casartelli won the gold men’s road race event.

Alex said Lloret de Mar was the perennial grand starting point of the annual Tour de France (TdF) bicycle marathon, considered the longest, richest, toughest and the most prestigious cycling road battle in the world. Unfortunately, after the 2013 edition of TdF, the traditional starting point was moved elsewhere. Alex believes that the new chief executive of this city is not a TdF buff unlike his predecessors. He, however, pointed out that the annual 7-day Tour of Cataluña still start here and sometimes hosts the grand finish, too.

During our travel on June 4, we saw a lot of cyclists roaming around the Cataluña region. Our province that has produced champions, shares the popularity of cycling- in France. But what surprised and disappointed me was the absence of stories on the first two games of NBA finals in their national newspapers (Daily Mail and Daily Express) that I always read. I was in utter disbelief that NBA basketball in this country is not popular. What the French are following are the results of the games of their sports hero lawn tennis player Roger Federer in the 2018 French Open.  (More on him (Nadal) on the next issue).

See you guys next week.

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QUOTE OF THE WEEK: And Jesus Christ said, “Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men.  Anyone who speak a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come. Matthew 12:31-32

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