To move from sport, tool for progress and social cohesion

The Women's Sub 17 team was received at the Nariño Palace by President Gustavo Petro, when he achieved the world subtitle of the category, in 2023.

Photo: Presidency

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Sport is a central element in the integral education of people. Without the presence of sport, education is incomplete, limited and does not allow a full development of citizens. In Colombia, sport is an element of social cohesion and promotes well -being in all ages of life. It contributes to the prevention of chronic diseases and releases the health services of avoidable pressures allowing budget savings that can be destined for other health needs.

The sport, from Latin Deporte, which means enjoyment, joy, has always been fundamental, from ancient civilizations, through the Olympic Games in Greece to those of the modern era revived by Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the French aristocrat who in 1896 organized them in Athens under the principles of education, health, ethics and union of the peoples through a common demonstration for all, sport.

All characteristics that from movement, physical education, recreation, the constructive use of free time, physical activity and sport in all its manifestations, formative, school, recreational, healthy recreation and competitive and high achievements, generate in a country without a number of healthy productive and development manifestations for collective and individual enjoyment.

But as it always happens to us, only laws, a lot of advertising, word commitments that remain in the air, because the resources do not appear. Our athletes and paratletas living with alms to represent the country.

And where is the government? It does not appear. We always believed those who knew the story of President Gustavo Petro who would follow the inspiration and example that for him was the teacher and physical educator Víctor Jairo Chinchilla at his school in Zipaquirá. For this teacher, physical education was fundamental as a transformation tool in society, a passionate and leader of the sector.

President Petro met him as a student and forged a great friendship. Together they were part of the M-19 and it was this professor who made him know the story of José María Melo, a subaltern military of Bolivar who finished president of New Granada during the Civil War of 1854. Professor Chinchilla, after his departure from the M-19, dedicated his life to the teaching and formulation of public policies of sport for a better and healthier society.

Passionate about physical education and sports in school, all of us who knew him and knew of his commitment and permanent projection from the pedagogical with movement and exercise, we were convinced of the influence he would have on the public sports policies in Colombia. But how wrong we were.

Four Sports Ministers have gone through this government. The Olympic athlete and gold medalist in weightlifting María Isabel Urrutia little hard and said goodbye in public procurement scandals; The university professor and colleague of Victor Jairo Chinchilla at the Pedagogical University, Astrid Bibiana Rodríguez, spent a short time in front and charged the scandal of the loss of the headquarters of the Pan American Games for Barranquilla 2027.

Then came Dr. Luz Cristina López Trejos, a Bachelor of Physical Education belonging to the Paralympic sector, who little development gave the ministry and dedicated himself to publicly complain about the budget cuts and the few resources for investment he had, generating discomfort at the level of the high government, which cost him the exit. Since February 2025, Patricia Duque Cruz, Business Administrator, supported as a share of the conservatives related to the House of Representatives, who assumed this ministry with all the budgetary, administrative and political problems that the sector has, with a president who in full act of possession of the minister and in the midst of her characteristic rhetoric said: “I do not understand what a ministry of sport.”

With all these background and the actors committed to the development of physical education, recreation, physical activity and sport silent, silent, as if nothing happened in the sector, faint pronouncements of some leaders and federations, as well as the Trade Union Association of Public Servants of the Ministry of Sports (Asmindep). And yet, our athletes around the world leaving their feats to pride a country that does little or nothing for them.

The investment budget for 2026 established in medium -term expenditure is a direct sentence against sport and its development in Colombia. The 44% reduction in investment resources with respect to 2025 and 84% compared to those of 2024, reflect the situation in terms of the resource that the sector has for the fulfillment of goals and the National Development Plan itself only one year after the current government is completed.

The serious consequences of the sport budget cut

We are all going to move through the sport. We have to launch a scream of firm alert to the seriousness of the situation. The future of sport in Colombia is in serious danger. Investment resources are decreased in very high percentages and this means that the complementary school day that benefits children and adolescents from municipalities of fifth and sixth categories will decrease in their coverage; The intercollegated games, seedbeds of the reserve and sports talent, paralyzed.

Children, older adults, people in disabilities, Afros, indigenous and peasants will be excluded from physical activity, recreation and community sports programs; Sports talents and reservation schools would have to close; The pararatletas and coaches athletes who have brought glory to the country will continue to wait for the incentives promised by Law 1389 of 2010; The preparation for the Olympic and Paralympic Games of Los Angeles 2028, with a reduction of more than 40,000 million pesos, will affect the participation of athletes and paratletas in qualifying events; The Athlete Excellence program would only have resources for the first semester of 2026.

The National and Paranational Games 2027, in the departments of Córdoba and Sucre, in the Nation Budget come with a significant reduction; Investment in sports recess infrastructure will decrease significantly and the ability to exercise inspection surveillance and control over more than 1,200 organisms of the National Sports System, would decrease.

Stop supporting sport is not an intelligent commitment due to its virtues of social cohesion and health promotion and prevention. It is also an essential part of the formation of free citizens, healthier and capable of transferring the culture of effort and overcoming that sports teaching us to their daily life.

To move now. We cannot shut up is a call to athletes and athletes, coaches, governors, mayors, councilors, deputies and congressmen who always see in the sport a way of begging the vote to be chosen. An immediate review of the investment budget 2026 is necessary. Resources for sport are not reduced, protect, are promoted, are prioritized, are not an expense without an investment in the soul of each Colombian.

Recreation, the practice of sport and the use of free time are a right enshrined in article 52 of the Political Constitution of Colombia and a fundamental right for children as established in article 44 of the same.