Komentarz do artykułu Tadeusz Kępka - historia niesamowita

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"Before I started in 1968, the only runners in this country were the farmers, the country people, the campesinos," Gomez says, calling back over his shoulder. "The campesinos, you know, are dark-skinned. They can grow no beards. Like most Mexicans, I am also part Indian, but I was from the city. I had pale skin and a full beard. The campesinos," he recalls, his face darkening with the memory, "called me Cortës."

Indeed, the role of Cortës might more properly be attributed to a Polish running coach named Tadeusz Kepka. In 1966, in preparation for the '68 Olympic Games to be held in Mexico City, the Mexican government hired Kepka to develop a team of distance runners from the host country. Trained in the rigorous, Communist Bloc style of sports science, Kepka discovered jaw-dropping potential in Mexico. Here, along the central plateau, were millions of people who had lived their entire lives above 7,000 feet. Here was a race of wiry, bellows-lunged descendants of an ancient running tradition, whose staple diet consisted of corn and beans, ideal distance-running fuel. Here, finally, were millions of young people living in the poverty requisite, the coach believed, for them to accept the deprivations of the distance-running life. Kepka, who took up permanent residence in Mexico, foresaw that the '68 Games, the first to be held at altitude and the first to take place in a developing nation, would irrevocably change the sport.

The Mexico City Games bore out Kepka's theories. Although Ethiopian Abebe Bikila had won the marathon in both the '60 and '64 Olympics, 1968 marked the full-scale arrival of African distance runners. The image of Kip Keino of Kenya trouncing a gasping Jim Ryun in the 1,500 meters symbolized the radically changed paradigm in the sport. From then on, most of the best distance runners would come from the Third World, and most would come from altitude. From his home in the northern city of Chihuahua, 17-year-old Rodolfo Gomez watched these developments avidly. When he saw his countryman finish fourth in the Olympic 10,000, Gomez bragged to his friends that he could run fast, too. A race was arranged with some of the best runners in the area. Gomez won easily and soon set off for Mexico City, determined to train with Kepka.

The middle-aged Polish immigrant and the young Mexican formed a remarkably close and productive relationship. The two began working together on Xinantecatl, and within a few years Gomez had won an athletic scholarship to the University of Texas at El Paso, a track-and-field powerhouse, and had developed into a world-class 5,000- and 10,000-meter runner. He found his true mëtier in the marathon, however, making three consecutive Olympic teams, in 1976, 1980, and 1984.

Fragment The Volcano Runners ,autorstwa Johna Branta, z witryny Outside online

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To, że o człowieku zapomniano to raczej smutne niż niezwykłe

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Pogadalem nieco z Barriosem , ktory zna kilka slow po polsku .

Uwaza ze sukcesy meksykanskich biegaczy to klasyczna polska szkola biegowa ( przed Kepka bylo nic).
Dzisiaj jest podobnie jak w Polsce - brak motywacji wsrod mlodziezy.

Zapytalem sie jeszcze o Indian Tarajumara. Arturo powiedzial , ze genetycznie oni maja takie "sloniowate stopy", biegaja wiec niezdarnie i nigdy nie beda biegac szybko. Aby biegac szybko ,trzeba miec waskie stopy.

[HelenaPiotrowska]

Dziękuję, Panie Adamie, za kontakt z bohaterem artykułu. Mam nadzieję, że mi pan Tadeusz odpisze, tym bardziej, że tak dobrą opinię wyraziła o nim Jadwiga Rapacka, żona Mariana Rapackiego, zmarłego w ub. roku sportowca, trenera, działacza z Warmii i Mazur, i nie tylko. Opinia ta znajdzie się w mojej książce o Marianie Tadeuszu Rapackim - Helena Piotrowska