When a specialist web-site gets in a single day a number of visits equal to 1.128 that turns out to be the historical maximum since 2006 year in which Marcia dal Mondo (then Marcia Italiana) was born, one wonders if the appreciation for the work done is occasional or long-lasting.

Yesterday in the World there were 747 visitors who browsed 3.046 pages on our web-site to get those news that we were able to give in an almost real time.

To provide this service, someone stayed close to the personal computer for well over eight hours, to gather information, watch the streaming, collect the photos sent by others, prepare the news and publish them.

At the end of the day the writer was exhausted, but happy and had no other desire than to go to sleep.

He thought (perhaps wrongly) that he had provided good service to those who love race walking.

Just then, on a social network, some comments appeared that made us think.

We usually also accept the comments of those who think differently from us, but this time these comments referred to our "freedom of opinion and speech" a principle of democracy, for those who make communication, inviolable and unquestionable.

We thought about it and decided to cancel the underlying part of news on Marcia dal Mondo (which concerned an athlete and obviously was not shared by the other).

We did it not because of a fact of weakness and not even because we felt guilty, far from it: if freedom of opinion is sacred for us it must also be for our readers, but to those few people on the 747 visitors of the day we have wanted to make it clear how difficult it is for those who make communication not to hurt others' sensitivities at times.

We would dare to say that it is particularly impossible when one expresses one's own thoughts about something or someone. If it is only sterile sports diary, this does not happen.

If we stop at the news, sometimes without pushing our readers, as we think, it would not make sense to continue like this: a copy of the results on Social Networks would be enough and we would save time and effort.

But with the sterile sports diary alone one does not grow and all that has to the dogs. And above all this is not the main goal of Marcia dal Mondo which aims to disclose race walking also through its history, its conferences, its athletes and its rules.

And so instead of rejoicing in the historic goal obtained yesterday, we have been embittered because we have understood that even in part of our audience, to share the same of our thoughts, even if not shared, is something sometimes not appreciated instead of being a moment for everyone of growth.

Getting all the audiences involved by always telling them what they want to hear and always justifying their thoughts is not part of our style.

We apologize in advance: we will never do it!

That is why today we have decided to take a serious and long pauses for reflection for a while.

If in the future there were to return moments that undermine our "freedom of opinion and speech" would it still make sense to keep Marcia dal Mondo alive?

Sincerely

The administrator of the web-site