Perspectives

 

For this last post I think it is appropriate to think about the event from the viewpoint of anyone who is not an athlete in Strbske Pleso.

 As part of the course project, Taylor, Yara and I have been strolling throughout the town and the venue area inquiring through our attaché, Tina, about the impacts of the World University Games. We ask each person we talk to about the environmental, economical and personal ways in which the games impact them and the area.  While it was our hope to see how the games might be affected by those in the local community, I am finding that I am becoming more excited by how those in the local community are affected by the games. As anyone would expect, most of the shop owners are quite happy about the games economic benefit. It is especially cool however, to see the venue personnel’s feelings about the games.  Although there was initial frustration about the lack of preparation for the game, there seems to be a legitimate excitement about Slovakia holding such a large event. This contrasts greatly to the experience in Italy in 2013 where it seemed that not many people were especially thrilled about the games. Here the stadiums are crowded, a Slovakian fan club beats drums in the hotel and people want pictures with foreign athletes. Those not competing in the races make the event far more exciting than it ever could be without their presence and their enthusiasm ramps up the electricity in the atmosphere. Perhaps this is just the biased viewpoint of someone who picked a sport where crowds are not a normal part of the competition (unless competing at the elite level), but either way, it’s pretty awesome.

An enthusiastic citizen we ran into during our downtown escapade