MEXICO CITY -- The Olympic Games of Beijing 2008 were a great result for China, not only regarding sports but further, Chief of the Mexican mission Carlos Padilla Becerra said on Friday.
Padilla told Xinhua that with discipline, unity and work, China achieved the best Games of the history.
Padilla said that "China told the world here they are very strong in all the aspects: economic, social, political, with a great strength of culture and sports, and it is the symptom of its culture that now again is reflected in the humankind."
Padilla said that the Games of Beijing were a reference to the humankind integration and a peace movement. "The message given during the inauguration (ceremony), make us remember the essence of what the Olympics means."
Padilla also hailed the work of the volunteers, who contributed in an efficient way to the success of the Games. The volunteer for Mexico was a lady, 70, who was the wife of a consul in the Mexican city of Tijuana in the border with US.
"Madame Yuan became an indispensable person for our work team. She knew Spanish and helped us many times with the translations during the arrival or departure of the athletes and during other moments when we have problems," Padilla said.
"She also helped us in the office when we went to the competitions. She was a great help," Padilla said.
About the facilities, Padilla said that there are no better ones in the world and he said that the Olympic village was very spacious, comfortable, agreeable and safe.
Padilla said that also the transportation was very well organized. "They gave us vehicles with drivers who in many occasion worked for us till 2am or 3am."
Sports improvement a long-term task
Padilla also admitted that Mexico will need some 10 years to achieves its best performance in the Olympic Games.
Mexico won in China three gold and one bronze medals, and it was the forth best performances in its history, but far from the ones of London 1948 (2-1-2), Mexico 1968 (3-3-3) and Los Angeles 1984 (2-3-1).
"For those who are on sports, we know that four years is not enough, there are many things to do to reach the success," Padilla said.
Padilla said that the high performance is responsibility of the sports authorities during the Olympic cycle, and it is necessary that the federations could work in a better organized and coordinated way with the authorities of the country.
"Those who are inside the national sports, must be honest and recognize that one of the big failures is the federations' lack of coordination and in the other hand the lack of support and development of the coaches in different sports," Padilla said.
Padilla said that one of the positive strategies of Beijing 2008 was the hiring of more foreign coaches.
The new strategy that Conade wants is that foreign coaches leave school here and to be replaces by Mexicans, Padilla said.
Padilla said that Mexico should take advantage of the sports advances of Cuba to make an improvement of the national coaches.
"I see a very hard time for London 2012. It is difficult to achieve it on the following games, it is complicated. The miracles do not exist. The most important is to give the first step," Padilla said.