GO MOLLY!!

My student, Jean, invited me to an international athletic competition held at O Estádio do Mangueirão, Belém’s gigantic futebol stadium.

More than 50 countries were represented including the United States. O Grande Prêmio Internacional de Atletismo 2011 was free to the community, and the stadium began to fill as soon as the doors opened. The event is one of Brazil’s largest sporting events, and luckily, Pará hosted it this year. The bank that was sponsoring the games handed out caps to everyone as they entered, and we all sported them proudly!

Everyone was also excited about the final event—the car giveaway!!

We arrived pretty early to avoid the lines and we scored pretty sweet seats in the VIP section, although, getting to my seat was frightening!! It took me longer to get there than the others because I am terrified of heights, and I had to stop and breathe before every step down.

We watched all events including jumping, hurdling, shot put, and the discus throw. My favorites, however, were the pole vault and running games. We were closest to the pole vault, so we had a great view of the athletes.

I’m not much into these sports typically, but I was so excited to see them compete. The athletes are all so fit, and I am impressed by their commitment to training for these events. I was in complete awe of their fitness levels!

I was really excited to see athletes representing the United States compete. There was a runner from the United States competing in the 800-meter race named Molly.

I unofficially bet Lindsey that she would win because Lindsey was adamant that she wouldn’t. She won. I like to think that my cheering led to her victory, but it also led to my embarrassment.

I was completely enthralled in the race especially as she came in for the win, and my cheering was loud (probably obnoxious) and in English. I didn’t think much about until everyone around us stopped cheering and just starred at me. I wanted to curl up into a ball and disappear.

The kids in front of us looked scared and really confused. They thought I was related to Molly, and one little girl asked for my autograph.

I got a picture with her instead. When Molly came around, I shouted out and asked to get an autograph for her. She kindly agreed, but this caused uproar in the stands. As soon as I threw out the little girl’s hat to get signed, 50 others threw their hats at Molly too. They all began to scream and shout for the athletes.

Jean recorded most of the chaos and decided to create a short film of the incident.

Unfortunately, no one in our group won the car, and I may never be allowed back in to this place.