Located literally under the municipal swimming pools of Montjuïc -framework for the postcard photographs of the Olympic athletes ‘flying’ over the city that circumnavigated the world in the summer of 1992-, the future headquarters of Barcelona Sports Institute (IEB) It will also be, for sure, spectacular.
The council works in the impressive building of the institute under the jumping pools, municipal, but privately managed until 2034
5,000 square meters of plant in a space until now, to say the least, underused -between the columns that support the pools-, in which its devoted director, Carlos Lopez, visualize a great equipment to be “health laboratory and reference center of the Vocational Training in field of sport [“sector que genera más puestos de trabajo entre los jóvenes de a ciudad”, apunta] at the same time as a community space for sports practice, to which the neighbors of the poble sec can access popular prices. Sports facilities that will manage the students themselves that they will practice, thus, the management tasks. And a contact with the neighborhood that he is looking for, in addition, a student empowermentprotagonists and space managers, a key strategy in the fight against school dropout.
In principle, the first phase of the new IEB headquarters -strategic bet of Barcelona’s town hall– The 23-24 academic year will be inaugurated -that is, in just a few months-, although the current state of the works -the building still looks like a skeleton- makes it hard to believe. His director walks through the works excited while he narrates all the opportunities that the new building will offer to the project, although with an obvious thorn: they will not be able to use the majestic pools of its roof, being its privatized management, like the vast majority of mountain sports facilities.
(faces) inheritances
“They have one 50 year concession and only open in summer; during the rest of the year they are used only for the seagulls to bathe”, laments Lopez, who at first had a hard time understanding situations such as the public institute he directs having to pay 24 euros per hour and lane to rent the Picornell Pools -also municipal- for their practical classes. Some more expensive rates than what you charge them the private Club Montjuïc (14 euros per hour and lane).
Given that they need rent 104 hours per week -Among other professionals, the center is training instructors of ‘aquagym’– repayment becomes quite painful; situation that will not be solved with the new building (since the pool on the institute, today until 2034has a private management that is not for the job).
Despite the fact that joy cannot be complete due to the impossibility of using ‘his’ pool -inherited from other times and a way of building the city-, López insists, “for justice”, in emphasizing listening by the city council and his “clear commitment” to the IEB, the third public vocational training center specialized in the city [el primero fue el Náutico, vinculado a las profesiones vinculadas al mar; y el segundo, el Tecnológico].
“Sports is a sector that creates many jobs in the city; the fan is growing; older people, for example, a generation ago it was unimaginable for them to play sports and now they are a very important niche“, says the director while walk up the mountain way that his students are used to doing, since the practical subjects are done in municipal facilities distributed through Montjuic (under the same conditions as the swimming pools, paying rent by the hour).
Need for public squares
Before the opening of the IEB -which began in September 2020, in the middle of the pandemic-, there were 19 private centers offering FP linked to sport and only three audiences. Today the IEB has 520 students and with the new building they will reach 700, being able to accommodate up to 900, with a varied offer ranging from a sports baccalaureate in partnership with the institute papasseit until Higher degree FP in Physical Conditioning or a course to train people with intellectual disabilities as handymenin a space of the Tres Pins School, Also in the mountains.
“It is important that young people know the trades long before, that there is good orientation and that Vocational Training is an option, not an emergency exit”, López continues, convinced and proud of all the options offered by the institute, which it covers in a premeditated way very different profiles.
The transformative power of sport
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The idea of creating the IEB came from Martha Carranza -he points out, also “for justice”, Lopez. And it made all the sense in the world to do it on Montjuïc, whose relationship with sport goes back a long time. the 92 Games. “In July ’36 the olympic stadium I was going to host The People’s Olympiad, organized as a protest against Hitler’s Berlin Olympic Games, but in ’36 what happened happened and in the end it couldn’t take place”, recalls Lopez, absolutely convinced of transformative power of sport.
Town hall sources assure that “the Barcelona’s town hall will work and will take the necessary steps to facilitate the links between this public vocational training facility and all its surroundings, and above all, from the moment you open the new educational equipmentwith the facilities of the swimming pools that are closer”.