The Commander changed Venezuelan sport forever: “My dream was to be like the whip Chávez”

The arrival of Eternal Commander Hugo Chávez to the presidency of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela represented a before and after for Venezuelan sports both nationally and internationally.

Hugo Chávez was always concerned with helping athletes and promoting physical activity within and outside our borders, convinced that sport transforms individuals and that through it we can build a new homeland, “a society with humanist values and social justice ”.

There are many anecdotes told by the Eternal Commander where he demonstrates his passion for sports, as described by Orlando Oramas and Jorge Legañoa in the book Cuentos del Arañero, where he confessed that he never forgot that being a baseball player was one of his dreams.

“Behind the example of the 'Whip' Chávez. Isaías Chávez , whom I admired so much and who died in 1969 when he was going to the big leagues. The Whip was 23 years old when that plane crashed, back in Ziruma. It was a Sunday, and I woke up a little late. The world came to me. I was 14 years old and my dream was to be like the Whip Chávez,” said the Commander.

In other stories called Anoten, this left-handed man, Commander Chávez, narrated that after arriving in Caracas, to the Military Academy to “try my luck”, coming from Barinas, without his father's permission (because he wanted me to study at the University of Los Andes, in Mérida), “one day I grabbed my old briefcase, where I put the spikes, the glove and the Magallanes t-shirt and I came to Caracas.”

“I had a scraped subject, at the Military Academy they wouldn't accept me like that, but they tested me for baseball. Héctor Benítez, who is a father to me, was the batting coach of the Academy. I was lucky. They threw three straight lines at me and I stuck three lines to the right wing. I remember Benítez saying: write down that left-handed person and they wrote down left-handed Hugo Chávez,” he said.

Years later, after the arrival of Chávez to the presidency of the Republic, his public policies turned Venezuelan sports around, considering it an indispensable tool for the construction of a supportive, inclusive, unrestricted social practice and an extraordinary vehicle for integration between peoples, giving it constitutional rank in the Magna Carta in 1999, in its article 111, aimed at consolidating the union and ensuring its duties and rights.

He also promoted the birth of Simoncito Deportivo and the National Center for Applied Sports Sciences (Cenacade) in 2004, the Ministry of Popular Power for Sports, the Sports Talent Educational Units, the Sports University, and Fundaexar in 2006, add up to some of the achievements during Chávez's term in office.

The Commander also encouraged the increase in scholarships for athletes and supported the birth of the Alba Games in 2005; he sought to hold the 2007 Copa América for the first time in the country, so he approved a significant investment that allowed the construction of three stadiums, in Barquisimeto, Mérida and Maturín, and the remodeling of other venues, to have nine first-class facilities.

In addition to organizing the 2007 Copa América, the Softball World Cup and the 2010 Women's Baseball World Cup were also held, to which we can add the 2012 Basketball Qualifying Championship .

In the Olympic field, Venezuela, as never before, left for Beijing in 2008 with a large delegation of more than 100 athletes. In 2012, he won the second gold medal in his history. Around those days he also won the runner-up in South American Judo in Buenos Aires.

Its social sports policies highlight support for Paralympic athletes, who were forgotten for decades and relegated from international competitions.

In 2014, the Paralympic delegation won third place in the first edition of the 2014 Para-South American Games, winning 34 gold, 24 silver and 21 bronze medals; obtaining a total of 79 medals.

There are many achievements in sports, both tangible and intangible, and the Gold Generation in all its dimensions will be grateful to him for dignifying the sports industry.

“This generation is the generation of victory, the generation of victorious Venezuela, of beautiful Venezuela. I only ask you to keep going, always moving forward, setting an example, increasing your effort in sports, never lowering your level of training, I am sure that your coaches, your technical directors will be able to keep with you that spirit, that mystique of the athlete, of maintaining the pace of training so that you climb positions every day more, every encounter, every fight, every tournament will be an achievement, it will be an achievement and one more step towards the heights of victory,” said Chávez , during a meeting with athletes at the Miraflores Palace, on August 5, 2002.

The Commander congratulated the athletes, “to everyone and may they continue to achieve many successes for our beloved Venezuela”.

“In Venezuela we are setting an example, waging a great battle for the future of these peoples of Latin America, and in that battle, of course, sports, culture, education are essential to them,” Chávez.

72 years after his birth, we remember that sport for Hugo Chávez was an essential part of his life.