Anxiety, depression, accidents: behind the victories there are often invisible personal battles. Here is who he met the darkness and found the courage to leave
At what point is the night? Fragile, vulnerable champions, under the slap of anguish. They consume days inhabited by ghosts. They don’t live them, they suffer them. Winning (in many cases) means winning (also) their fears. Silenced anxiety, the terror removed. So David Popovici at the Singapore World Cup triumphed in the 100 and 200 meters freestyle. Extraordinary brace, for a young man who already has a collection of monstrous trophies at twenty years. Put your head under water, then get out of it. We return to breathe, slowly. You learn again to move, in that theater of solitudes that is life. In the most underestimated of his films, the extraordinary “This must be the place”, Paolo Sorrentino makes the protagonist Sean Penn that “is the fear that saves us”. Look at it, face it, manage it. The secret is to take care of yourself: if you don’t see the light at the end of the tunnel, be that light.