by Córdoba, Jul 9 (EFE) .- The traditional games, those of a lifetime, such as the piola, the sack race, the stilts or the wheelbarrow, regain their spirit with the celebration of the XIII Rural Olympics of Los Pedroches two years after the pandemic.
The Córdoba town of Añora, in the north of the province of Córdoba, multiplies its population these days with the participation of nearly 1,000 people from all corners of Spain and who are divided into 48 teams to compete in 15 traditional games and two cultural.
The mayor of Añora, Bartolomé Madrid, explained to EFE that the Olympics return after “two years of hiatus”, although in 2021 a “gala” was highlighted to thank the “support” of the “people and entities” that “prepare with much affection” this appointment, whether they are municipal “volunteers or technicians”.
Two years that have also served to implement “improvements”, such as the “stages” of the “opening and tests”, which have a “new cover in the fairgrounds” and that allow the gala to be held “more comfortably” Sunday closing.
A closing party in which you can “taste a paella and a salmorejo” and which is the “best possible way” to end a new edition of the Rural Olympics that, since its inception 15 years ago, have sought to promote “intergenerational coexistence through the “recovery of the traditions of the rural world”.
As it should be, prior to the inaugural gala, the 48 teams have paraded through the streets of Añora in a multicolored caravan to the fairgrounds, where the artist Paloma Lirola has led an act accompanied by the group Animal Rock.
Rafa Nadal or Iker Casillas have been some of the faces that in previous editions have left their message of support and encouragement to the “Olympians”, an honor that this time has gone to the sports journalist Manolo Lama, the former Real Madrid player Manolo Sanchís , the presenter Sonsoles Ónega and the Sevilla footballer Oliver Torres.
A few words in which they have highlighted the importance of the values that a meeting of these characteristics transmits and with which they have encouraged the Olympic flame to remain alive for many years and many generations.
“You are cracks, this has nothing to envy the Olympics to be held in Paris,” Lama stressed. “You have my admiration,” adds Sanchís. “A lot of encouragement”, Ónega replies, while Torres wanted “everything to be a lot of fun for the youngest and the oldest”.
The heat wave that Andalusia is suffering, more attenuated in the north of the province of Córdoba, has not prevented the first tests such as “A piola”, “garrote” and “cucaña” from being held during the night and early morning.
A touchstone to measure the level of the teams and glimpse the fight for the first places that resumes in the morning with the mizos or rural skittles, the tiraeras, the cobblestone or the sack race.
With just enough time to recover strength, and thanks to the fact that each team has between 16 and 20 athletes, the composition continues to be distributed in the stilts, the rope, the wheelbarrow, the queen’s chair, and already close to the dawn, the dance of the jacks.
All this animated by the verbena in charge of the Chasis orchestra that will close the party so that on Sunday the “pingané” is celebrated first thing in the morning, the spectacular test of the jump rope and the carrying of pitchers, which could decide the winner.
Three days of Olympic spirit and pure competition between parents, children and grandparents, thanks to those traditional games, those of a lifetime, that bring back the fun of yesteryear in rural areas and that will never perish despite a pandemic.
luis ortega
(c) EFE Agency
