Historical Reception for Saladino Paralyzes the Country
(http://www.panama-guide.com/) So far in the 2008 Olympic games in Beijing, athletes from only 47 countries have been awarded gold medals. Panama is one of them. That piece of gold prompted a massive reception yesterday for Irving Saladino, winner of the Olympic gold medal in the Men's Long Jump. The streets of Panama City became a spontaneous corridor of honor for the new sport hero of Panama. Like a Hollywood celebrity, the native of Colon, as he passed through the city, took the applause of thousands of people, who in one way or the other wanted to salute the "Sultan of the Sands" as he passed by. The caravan lasted approximately 5 hours. Saladino arrived at his native city at about 6:00 pm and was resting and preparing themselves for further acts of tribute planned to start early today in Colon.
As part of the festivities yesterday, Panamanian boxer Roberto Duran "re-presented" the Olympic Gold medal to Irving Saladino in front of thousands of cheering fans at the steps to the ACP administration building in Balboa yesterday morning. Saladino considered the medal to be "tainted" because it was awarded to him by Melitón Sánchez, the only member of the Panamanian Olympic Committee who was not under a court ordered restriction to keep him from traveling to Beijing. Check out this video on delante.com that shows how Telemetro had blocked out the face of Melitón Sánchez to the delight of Irving Saladino's father, who went on to say that after Melitón Sánchez awarded the medal and shook Saladino's hands, that he wiped them on his ass to clean them. So, the "re-do" medal award ceremony with Roberto Duran presenting the medal again was specifically to purge the memory of Melitón Sánchez. In an interview Irving Saladino said about Sánchez "that guy has no shame." The controversy over the fight to gain control of the Panamanian Olympic Committee continues, and hopefully with the attention drawn to the issue with Irving Saladino's win in Beijing, the Panamanian justice system will smack a homerun and set things straight (finally.) This whole thing has been one big embarrassment and Irving said it right, they have no shame at all.
