Olympic valencianos that stayed on the road

Abstract

The life of a series of Valencian athletes who, for various reasons, despite having made the due merit and obtain trademarks or posts required to participate in the Olympics but finally did not come, serve as a leitmotif to understand the vicissitudes, inequalities and contradictions of the Spanish sport system over nearly 50 years (1928-1976), a period that largely coincides with the Franco dictatorship. The study was carried out by using qualitative methodology based on interviews with the protagonists themselves or their relatives, which was completed with the use of newspaper sources (analysis of the written press of the time) and documentary collection and federative personal files. Five are the athletes that a number of circumstances prevented them from reaching the Olympic wound. In chronological order: José Hernandez, Spanish runner-up in 1928 in the marathon of Barcelona, nominated to represent Spain at the Olympics in Amsterdam; José Lacomba Spanish champion in long, triple and height jump, including the records of Spain who could have gone to the Berlin Games; José Blay, Spain marathon champion, eighth best mark of the year, and selected for the London Games in 1948; Emilio Ponce, Spain record holder of 100 yards and 4x100, selected for the Olympics in Melbourne, and finally José Luis López Peris, tree times champion of Spain in 400 meters and minimum at this distance for the Montreal Games in 1976. We try to value the relevance of these athletes in order to dignify and record their figures and make known the vicissitudes which crossed in their careers. The biography of these five athletes shows that their exclusion from the Olympic Games was due to various reasons. On some occasions influenced the lack of personal resources for the trips, others were decisive ideological commitments, personal jealousies, the potential loss of prestige of the brand Spain, changes in criteria by the Spanish athletics federation and class conflict.