Monday marked the 8th anniversary of the war between Georgia and Russia. Monday also was the third day of the Rio Olympics. These seemingly different events were never meant to combine for something memorable. No one thought they would. And yet, when Lasha Shavdatuashvili, stepped unto the red and yellow circle with thousands of people roaring behind him, the air stood still. Standing in front of him was Denis Iartcev, a Russian wrestler with a typical tall and tender Russian look. Light coloured hair, a secretive smile, and a spirit to win it all.
Shavdatuashvili comes from the city of Gori, a place where the notorious USSR leader Josef Stalin was born, and the city that felt the 2008 war the most. Most of the Russian bombs were dropped in the vicinity of Gori and on the city itself, while both of the armies of Georgia and Russia were situated in the town as well. I vividly remember seeing thousands of civilians begging for help, for someone to free them from the city grounds and salvage their lives. Georgian TV channels somehow received the footage from the troops who were searching for civilians in bombed and burned out buildings, which somehow reached all the major broadcasting stations in the country. It was a total chaos, a calamity of gruesome heights. And the most iconic image of all, an elderly woman sitting near a half burnt building, with her face covered up in smoke and coal-like dirt, sobbing over a dead body of her son. She was in agony. That, was the epitomization of atrocity. Those 5 days of August that the city went through will remain in historical notebooks for many more years to come. Those were memorable days. And they will be remembered forever.
Fast forward to 8 years from the war and you have the Olympics, a sporting tournament which is meant to signify the unity and peace between the people of this world, no matter their race, religion, and ethnic background. A game to unite them all per se. And on the very exact day when the battles broke out in 2008, a Georgian wrestler symbolically defeated a Russian wrestler, though in a much more peaceful and a friendly way. Not in an act of hostility and belligerence. Not with war.
The fight however, was not the highlight of the day. After all, it's just a sport. Sometimes you lose and sometimes you win. Nothing unusual in that. What mattered the most, was what Lasha Shavdatuashvili did after the win. In what seemed like seconds turned into an eternity, he raised his bruised and tired palm, carefully and emotionally placing it on the tenderly carved out Georgian flag on the left side of his white kimono, and stared into the eyes of Denis Lartcev. Then he took his hand and made a gesture, pointing his fingers to the ground, as if stating that this land belongs to him. That he was victorious. That he didn't give up and in the end came out on top. With this, he said it all.
2008 will never be forgotten in Georgia. It has left a visible scar. But as time goes by and things change, Georgian people have moved on. Symbolically, 8 years ago, when the whole world was watching the Beijing Olympics, Georgia in the meantime fought a war against Russia. 8 years from then, a Georgian man won a medal against a Russian in the new installment of the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
August is a memorable month for us, for it can make great changes in us.
David Robakidze, August of 2016.
