IS SPORT AS GOOD AS IT SEEMS?

The idea we have about sport has changed drastically over the last few years. Some time ago only rich people could afford to practice some sport apart from football, which was the only one that poor children played on the streets. The ones with enough money to buy some equipment practiced tennis, ski, squash... they were considered to be the exception. However, now the strange thing is not to practice any kind of physical activity.

The image that the media offers us of famous sportsmen who always look fit, healthy and happy, makes us want to be like them, that´s why going to gyms or doing different sports is getting to be more and more popular as a way to lose weight. Of course this has its good side, such as health, or better self-esteem. On the other hand, it can also make us obsessed, or cause psychological disorders such as “vigorexia”, which leads to an excessive practice of sport, as well as stopping eating in order not to spoil the results of our physical efforts.

How can we know when we have crossed the thin line between looking healthy and going over the top? Especially now that summer is getting near and everybody wants to have the perfect body desired by everyone. We must not forget that our health is more important than looking sexy for a few months. Therefore, be clever, don´t punish yourself doing strict diets combined with long exercise sessions, enjoy your time eating, drinking or going out with your friends - it´s much better and within a few years you'll realize you made the right decision.

That beautiful sport called sky

Time: 15.30

Location: Tramacastilla ski lift and the black track of “Tubo Inferior”.

Characters: Pablo, David, Alberto, Luis and me.

Brilliant the idea of David to take the Tramacastilla ski lift to get to “Tres Hombres” and more or less in the middle of the track get off the lift and go down through the black track “Tubo Inferior”; so when we arrived there we read "extreme difficulty", but, baah, it was just a suggestion... Overall, we got to the famous track and:

Alberto: Hey! There is a child like us that came rolling down the whole track.

David: Bah! He was a novice who had no idea how to ski.

And he skis straight down 5 meters, then skids on a patch of ice and falls down, we all start laughing and his skies go straight down the runway all the way down, a tremendous scene.

Then, I start to go down the track to help him, but suddenly I turn around and I see Pablo and Alberto on the floor sliding on the same patch of ice and they are coming heading towards me. I try to move way but these idiots knock me over, Alberto´s skies hit me on the shoulder and Pablo's finish the job hitting me squarely on the head (I was wearing a helmet so it was not too bad.)

I crawl down with my skies a few meters towards David but they come off and I go down THE ENTIRE track rolling like a ball without control, tumbling, doing cartwheels, bouncing over the snow, and many other strange things that I cannot remember well, so 600 meters later, I could stop…

I lie face up, exhausted, with my shoulder and leg in pain, after having rolled like a ball in the middle of an avalanche on one of the most difficult black tracks of the resort.

One minute later, with my body lying on the surface of the snow and trembling with an incredible feeling of adrenaline after having a brush with death, I turn around to see what the hell the idiots who knocked me down are doing.

Pablo is completely white; he thought he had killed me because of the how he struck me. Luis has fallen down laughing due to my tumbling down and has several skies and poles in his hands. Later, I see David going down jumping in the snow as if he had springs in his boots and also laughing like a little kid, and behind him Alberto who comes to me but with the same luck as David, he ends up falling down, well not exactly the same because he goes head down like a sledge while the snow sprays into his mouth.

Then suddenly, an avalanche starts above us and balls of ice bounce down from the top of the track, a big one hits Alberto’s head.

In the end, everything calms down, but the commentaries while all of us were going down were these:

Luis: It is the last time I do this; I am not a back sweep.

David: Yeah! It is awful rolling down ha! Ha!

Alberto: Ehh! Help me I can’t stop!

Me: But this is great what an adrenaline rush.

Pablo: Sergio, are you ok?

But everything does not finish there; after everything gets back to normal, more or less we go down what little remains of the track as fast the speed of light, and we arrive at a difficult downhill slope. David, as usual, falls down again and he slips dangerously towards some rocks, Alberto goes to help him but, not to our surprise, he falls over his cousin. Luis, Pablo and I continue with our route going down the hill without any difficulty and we wait for them watching how the funny scene finishes. Both cousins get up and we continue going down to the end of the track.

But later, David falls down in virgin snow again, and instead of leaning his body back and lifting the tips of the skies, he leans forwards and the skies dig into the ground, he shouts an spectacular “¡Yikes!” and he falls down the hill, unable to stop with his hands; then, at the distance, we hear another scream “Hells bells!, what now?” and he gets up with all his face full of snow.

Football

Football is a sport that everyone knows. It was invented by the Egyptians and it has been very well accepted by society. Everyone is supposed to like football and if not they are considered to be very strange. Football is the most popular sport even when we are small.

Football is also the most promoted sport, on television, on the radio, in the newspapers… Also, football causes a great economic loss, due to the publicity and the money that the players receive. On the one hand, it is unfair because not all sports have the same publicity and are not as well paid as football is. Spain is going through a financial crisis, but some football players earn millions and millions of Euros every year.

Some people get really nervous when they are watching a football match, and it wouldn’t be a problem if the radical groups didn’t exist. These radical groups don’t respect the opposing team and throw objects such as bottles or flares onto the football pitch.

Football also creates idols and many people want to be professional football players and make a living from it. As happens with fame in general, many football players who are really good become rich and famous when they are young, but they usually have problems with drink and drugs. Also, some of them leave their studies very early and when they stop playing football they don’t have work.

So, football is a good sport that nearly everyone likes, but it is has too much publicity in comparison with other sports.