71 year-old Fernando Alvarez was swimming in the World Masters' Championships -- the mature-aged swimming world championships, in the 200-meter breaststroke heats.
And he wanted FINA to respect his homeland of Spain after the Barcelona attacks and have a moment of silence before either his race or the heat, threatening to stand on the blocks and observe one himself if they refused.
They refused. He did.
The Deadspin article and Alvarez said it better than I could:
As he later told El Español, “But I do not care, it was [more important] than if I won all the gold in the world.”By comparison, FIFA and La Liga were far more understanding: Barcelona not only had a tribute on their uniforms (replacing their own names with the name of the city) for their home league opener, but both teams held a moment of silence before the match.
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