Hello everydoby. In the first part of the LEN – Entering the era of Integrity and Transparency series I started to write about a video that was posted on the official youtube page of Len – European Aquatics called „The Road to Better Sport Governance: A Case Study from European Aquatics”. The mentioned video was made for an event hosted by SIGA Sport. An organization for good governance and integrity. SIGA is big on integrity. Check the first part here. https://www.dance.hr/kolumne/gostujuce-kolumne/len-entering-the-era-of-integrity-and-transparency-part1.html . Today we will continue analyzing this conversation and its participants. If you found the first part a bit boring and dry, brace yourself. We about to get wet.

Hello everybody. A few days ago I watched a LEN European Aquatics video called “The Road to Better Sport Governance: A Case Study from European Aquatics”

Growing up is an interesting concept that I’m still trying to fully grasp. Elegant brutality of life happens in front of our faces every day, but it remains hidden from the eyes of those who refuse to accept certain truths about life. Adults have this world which they don’t speak about. The older generation of adults doesn’t like to speak about how they come from an era where there was simply not enough for everyone, while the new generation of adults doesn’t like to speak about how they come from an era where there should be enough for everyone. Subtle changes are happening at those levels, invisible to those who don’t know exactly what to look for, but that’s something we don’t need to speak about. There are levels of functioning where an organization, or an industry, or a company, or even a whole sport is just a cleverly and elegantly positioned tool, or an asset, within a greater long term purpose.

Svijet oko nas ponekad izgleda poput beskrajnog nastavka situacija, odluka i problema koji se događaju iz razloga odavno zaboravljenih i značenja odavno izgubljenih. Čini se da nam je put već utaban od strane onih koji su ga prije nas prošli i na nama je da hodamo istim putem za one koji će doći nakon nas. Nemogućnost prosječnog i oblikovanog života nas ne plaši, već nedostatak mogućnosti da išta promijenimo u vezi s time. Imati snove znači ignorirati sve što društvo misli, osjeća i dopušta da bude moguće. Snovi dolaze iz tog privatnog mjesta gdje smo mi heroji. Dolaze iz istog mjesta odakle dolaze sve naše molitve. Dolaze iz mjesta gdje naša priča ima sretan kraj, ili barem mogućnost takvog. Sportovi su dogovorena platforma na kojoj se dopušta postojanje snova, a imati ih znači imati nadu i vjerovanje u rijetke prilike koje utječu na naše živote i mijenjaju ih. Svi postojimo i pritom pokušavamo pridati racionalna značenja i objašnjenja svim kušnjama i izazovima koje nam život priređuje. Sportovi nam omogućuju uvid u svijet koji postaje pošten zahvaljujući prihvaćanju da nitko nije iznad pravila sporta. Sportovi nas čine jednakima.

Greetings to all, and welcome to yet another one of my waterpolo recitations. By nature, I never really wanted to do these waterpolo recitations. I have always valued training more than speaking, but certain circumstances have almost forced me to do what I’m doing now, and it doesn’t make sense to stop, at least not as long as I’m active as an athlete in the pool. After my active career, I’ll see what and how I’ll proceed. There were times when I wanted to quit with this what you are reading now, but then it seemed as if everything I had written up to that point would somehow come crashing down on me. Have you ever had that feeling? That feeling that everything you’ve done up to a certain moment will come back to haunt you if you don’t see it through to the end. And that means that for the time being the whole waterpolo community can enjoy having me around. Besides, it looks good on my CV when I’m looking for a job. So, let’s continue with the article.

Greetings everyone. It is now more than evident that the world before the coronavirus was hanging by a few small threads that have now snapped. We are all aware that the system has collapsed, and now we are all trying to create a new system while somehow maintaining the positions we held in the old system, whether in the market or in some social hierarchy. This is not the first time that systems have collapsed and new ones have been created.

Poštovanje svima. Sada je i više nego očito da je svijet prije korone visio o nekoliko malih niti koje su sada pukle. Svjesni smo da se sistem slomio, te da sada svi zajedno pokušavamo stvoriti novi sistem, a pritom nekako održati poziciju koju smo zauzimali u starome sistemu. Bilo na tržištu ili u nekoj društvenoj hijerarhiji. Nije ovo prvi put da se sistemi urušavaju i novi stvaraju.

Poštovanje svima. Da li se stvari u vaterpolu stvarno mijenjaju? Do prije koju godinu smo krivili jednu grupu ljudi, pa su onda oni napokon otišli. I sad došla druga grupa ljudi kojoj su dvije stvari išle u prilog. Prva je ta što ne možeš biti gori od svojih prethodnika, a druga je ta što se ima toliko prostora za napredak. I nakon godine dana od dolaska novih ljudi na vodeće pozicije ne mogu si pomoći nego stjeći dojam da je vaterpolo od davno jedna veoma mekana i neozbiljna institucija, te da će se teško to promijeniti u neko skorije vrijeme.