Photo: sportam.lv
Valmiera Theater decided to tell Latvians the story of its native Jānis Daliņas, the first to win an Olympic medal for Latvia. However, Daliņš’s great value and uniqueness do not lie in the curling of his toes or heel, or that frightening movement of his hips called athletic walking. First of all he was a human being… a Latvian. And after the “first” comes… Latvia and another Latvian.
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The fact that theater people keep busy is not a bad thing. In the case of Valmiera, it remains to be said: it is a pleasure that they bring to the stage a story that has meaning. It’s like it’s already okay to praise the county. It is clear that the Olympic medal and world records are in there somewhere, which makes one say that Daliņa is legendary.
The show annotation emphasizes above all the human spirit and physical strength in the pursuit of a sporting goal, which can be achieved with great work and willpower. In this way, the performance of a specific personality, which occurred far, far away from home, is emphasized. In 1932, in Los Angeles – in hellish heat, he overtook his competitors over a distance of 50 km. There weren’t many competitors because Olympic sports hadn’t been commercialized yet, but what a difference…
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And then, in the show, there’s some anxiety about the events of the 1936 Olympics, where the walker’s legs are said to be having convulsions, but the next Olympics in Helsinki have already been canceled due to the war… Eh , with no luck. The enthusiasm of the Valmiera actors for all this is so great that they even invite one of the modern steppers as a consultant – so that the gait offered on stage seems appropriate, if we talk about the steps that Daliņš showed in stadiums.
However, the true legend of Jānis Daliņš has a very uncertain connection with his walking speed and athletic laurels. It is, but the so-called legend itself is created in a completely different context.
To say that Daliņš is legendary is stupid. Because a legend as such is something invented, fabulous. But legendary – if only for example, that he was very famous, known, praised. We already have a full screen of those legendaries, until at some point they just have to be people. And then it turns out that one legend is a limited drinker, others change their families with sleepers, someone else has already managed to drink or play all his trophies and rings, but yet another is indebted not only to primary school – if let’s talk about education – but also for half the city – if we keep the money.
Times change, do legends remain? Legends mostly want fictional and false stories to be told about them when they are alive, because they at least match the stage or stages they came from. Helps maintain myths… Often even so-called legendary characters would like to remain only in the limelight, because they have no relationship with life in general, or they remain only with fanatical worshipers who never give up their idols. And then we see those awkward moments when the “legends” have to answer a very clear question about values and attitude that doesn’t require the bookie’s advice. In most cases these tests remain unsolved… How lucky we are that Jānis Daliņš knew how to use himself even without cups and records.
When cockroaches from the USSR arrived in Latvia in the summer of 1940 and wanted to create their own order of cockroaches here, the Latvian Jānis Daliņš was among those who did not run towards the Polish Turks or did not look for friends among the local collaborators. For the Saeima elections hastily organized and coordinated by Moscow insiders, the Latvian democrats gather with a counterforce. With our people. Daliņi does not need to be persuaded, he himself chooses the right side: Latvia.
People like Daliņš hate Čeka, because he – unlike Viļas Lāčas or August Kirchenstein, or Eduards Smilģas himself and the most important journalists of “Jaunākų Ziņu” – does not work as a propagandist locomotive or as a political prostitute with a red star under his arm those days. Although it could easily be… What could be a safer card, because the walker is loved and respected by people. But Daliņš is not just an athlete. This is what he does when he is free from work…
First of all he is a farmer, owner, family man. From day one, he is among those who well understand the chaos that the Russian hammer, sickle and boot will bring. Just as he had no illusions in the summer of 1941, when, at the beginning of the war, the self-defense forces were formed in Valmiera and Daliņš was also at the forefront of this movement… Nobody convinced him, nobody invited him, nobody promises nothing. Not gifted. The part does it itself. Do you still think that the Olympic medal he won is the pinnacle of what this man is?
Does that silvery black say anything? In 1932, before he was awarded the Order and Commendations for marching in Latvia, Jānis Daliņš told American journalists:
“However, nowhere is as beautiful as in your Homeland! Nowhere is life so humanly normal and beautiful as in Latvia!”
After the war he moved with his wife Elza and three children to Australia, where he worked for many years in Melbourne as a carpenter and later also as a house builder. Daliņš is also an active social worker, managing the Melbourne Latvian Sports Club. Until the end of his life, Jānis Daliņš maintained a Latvian attitude and the attitude of a decent person.
When, in the first half of the seventies, compatriots had the first opportunity to visit the Motherland, one of the greatest sons of Latvia, in an interview with an Australian Latvian newspaper, did not pretend: “I don’t want to ask the Russians for visa, I don’t want to see Latvia colonized by Russians. God willing, I will go to Latvia when there are no more Russians and the red rags they brought here.” Jānis Daliņš died at the age of seventy-three, on 11 June 1978, in Melbourne, far away Australia. Remembering the removal that took place in the Church of the Holy Cross, in the newspapers of fellow countrymen in those days one could find the following lines: “There was no mourning, there was nobility and respect!”
It is ironic that the obituary of the death of Jānis Daliņš was printed in Soviet Latvia twenty years before his death, in 1958. The communists confused something, misunderstood something, and everything turned into a funny farce, when a few months later the Riga newspaper “Sport” received a letter written by Daliņš himself, in which he thanked him for… not being forgotten.
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The Valmiera theater is sad because now they don’t forget their people. Only Daliņš is not a story about a medal and five Olympic rings, so that boys and girls love to ride or move around the spectacle and its synthetic joys. Daliņš is a story about Latvia. How it was. What it should be.
And if the famous song is about Daliņš’s legs, then you should always remember that everything was based on Daliņš’s head. Maybe there should be another show on his head—and not on his legs—but this is not a reproach or a reproach. It can always be corrected, improved. Good thing we don’t forget it.
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2024-01-16 05:01:22
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