The Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela: Olympic Goal

You can believe it: there, by the times when the Iberian Peninsula - this Spain of yours, this Spain of ours - was convulsed by that apocalyptic event that led to the Muslim expansion from North Africa, what you are now witnessed, comfortably sitting in front to his computer screen, and I do not exaggerate, if I say that it could be considered as the undisputed goal of International Olympism, it was hardly a place, a fraga, an impenetrable forest.

The discovery of the supposed remains of the Apostle James the Elder or if you prefer, Santiago Boanerges, the Son of Thunder, was going to assume - and here is the future to witness it - not only the reopening of the old Roman roads that communicated all of Europe, but also the reopening of the greatest sports deed to dream about: the Camino de Santiago.

Indeed, as a gigantic spiritual beacon and by sport defect, spiritual athletes from all corners of Christianity - and on few occasions, also traveled by people of other faiths and cults - prepared to re-highlight the transcendental spirit of the great marathons.

With or without prior preparation, an impulse of faith and adventure constituted the 'preheating', metaphorically speaking, of a competition, which, far from having the goal of overcoming others, was aimed, no matter how absurd, to compete with oneself

This inner competition, this desire to overcome and reach the desired goal, facing infinite situations and penalties, made the person who made it - call it a pilgrim, if you want - an elite athlete, whose dopping - metaphorically speaking, also, although The term sounds ugly for other extra-sports meanings - it was the endorphin itself generated by a supra-rational desire, called Faith.

Regardless of the path chosen - as it is said in Puente la Reina, 'and from here, all roads lead to Santiago'- the one that arrived in Compostela, had not only fulfilled a dream, or a promise or an obligation: it had exceeded the more arduous and difficult of the tests, beating a record, that even in the Olympic tests is not even equated: resistance.

The Compostelana, that accreditation obtained by the pilgrim who arrives in Compostela, is superior, in spiritual and human value, to any of the gold medals of a normal Olympic competition. It means the supreme prize for effort and self-denial and the greatest glory for an athlete.

NOTICE: Both the text and the accompanying photographs are my exclusive intellectual property.