On my way home Friday, I turned on the radio and fell into a program where a tennis expert was discussing a foot problem. She had finally found out what was wrong with that foot. The Müller-Weiss syndrome, it turned out. That meant he was playing that foot now, she said. He still wanted children, so you want to be able to run and play tennis with them.
Could be, but apparently Rafael Nadal also wanted to win Roland Garros for the fourteenth time, because when I got home and turned on the TV, he was sweating opposite Alexander Zverev on Court Philippe-Chatrier. The main stadium can be recognized by the text on a gray wall: ‘Victory belongs to the most tenacious’, Roland Garros. Loosely translated: persistence wins. Winning depends on what you define as victory. Win can be a fourteenth Roland Garros, or be able to resist and let the title run for the sake of a foot. What the persistence in top sport usually gains is a destroyed body. Zverev lost. He broke his ankle and left Roland Garros with a broken foot.
Roland Garros was a French fighter pilot who flew in World War I. He contributed to the development of the technology that allowed mankind to mount a machine gun on an airplane and shoot through the propeller without taking down its own aircraft first. With a mechanic, Garros fitted the propeller blades with wedge-shaped plates. Bullets fired out of synch with the propeller movement could bounce off. ‘Victory belongs to the most tenacious’ was also written on those propellers. That phrase had been borrowed by Roland from Napoleon.
On Thursday, Coco Gauff beat herself to the final on the same main court. Then you can write your name on the camera lens. The Georgia teen noted: “Peace. End gun violence. Coco.”
In the afterlife, when Rolald Garros is watching, he must say, “Ending guns? Corn mon!” have shouted, although it may be that he is now also anti-gun. In 1918 he was shot dead from the sky a day before his thirtieth birthday. Perhaps that brought him gun-free pacifist insight. That is yet to come in the United States. In the light of the latest shootings, basketball coach put it into perspective Steve Kerr his sport to the surface. Coco Gauff did the same during her press conference. Soon, Republicans in the sports-loving US will discuss gun laws so that athletes continue to talk about sports.
Coco Gauff was not the only activist at Roland Garros. During a men’s semifinal, a woman tied herself to the net. Her shirt read “We have 1028 days left.” This was a climate activist. On Saturday, Gauff played the final against Iga Swiatek. In an hour and eight minutes the Polish persistent won. During her victory speech, she received the longest applause when she turned to Ukrainians and told them to stay strong. So hold on, everyone: top athletes, pacifists, Ukrainians, climate activists and Nadal’s foot, because on Sunday he had to be in the final. In two hours and eighteen minutes, Roland Garros was again won by Rafael Nadal.
Carolina Trujillo is a writer.