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“In 2013 I was working as a computer scientist in a company in Oslo and at a lunch they asked me what I would do if I got the Lotto, the Norwegian lottery. I told them that I was clear, that I would introduce disc golf in Spain. And the commercial director replied that for that I didn't need any tenth, that making numbers was enough for me. So I put myself on those ».

If you live in Oviedo or have ever visited the city, you may have wondered why in some parks there are several strange, metal baskets, less than one meter. In the story of Carlos Río , the former IT resident in Oslo, is the answer. On how he left his job in Norway, how he designed several disc golf courses or how he convinced the City Council of his hometown to install them, his history turns, although the beginnings go back to the search for a store where to buy a frisbee.

«I think it was 1979, I must have been 15 years old. On television in a bar in Oviedo, I saw a report on the Frisbee World Championship that was being held in Pasadena and I loved it. I was looking for an album all over the city and in the end I only found it in Avilés. At that time my mother met a Norwegian who had come to Oviedo to study medicine, we moved to Oslo and at the university I discovered that there were leagues, teams, a whole structure. From there I went to World and European Ultimate, Discathlon, Disc Golf ... ", says Rio and her narration demands a pause.

What disciplines are you talking about? In the 70s several hippies got tired of passing the frisbee between them and began to experiment with it. They created the ultimate, American football with a disc; the discathlon, a test that combines running while throwing and picking up the disc; and among other modalities, disc golf, that is, golf with a disc. With a naive spirit, far from competition, they exported it to other cities and other countries through universities and in the end it caught Rio.

“I played Ultimate for several years with the Norwegian team, I was a coach, I won three World Discathlon Championships, I tried all the disciplines and finally I focused on disc golf. In fact, now I no longer work as a computer scientist, I have a more flexible job as a youth football coach for the Frigg Oslo football team, to dedicate myself to exporting the sport to Spain, ”says the player, a businessman. His company CRK disc golf designs courses, organizes championships, mounts exhibitions ... all so that the discipline stalls.

And it has made progress. In Oviedo is the first 18-hole course in Spain; in Santiago de Compostela, Mijas and Igantzi (Navarra) there are three other feature films; in Sanlúcar and again in Oviedo, two nine holes; and six smaller ones scattered throughout Spain. The nearly 100 licensed competitors meet every year in a championship that takes place in Asturias and a dozen clubs are already registered. There has been no notable expansion, as in some Scandinavian countries, but something is something.

«Right now the company does not earn anything. We invest what we enter in competitions or exhibitions, but we have taken steps. At first it sounded very strange to mount a disc golf course, but for example in Oviedo the City Council quickly saw the benefits. In addition to being a very familiar sport, it is accessible to everyone and maintenance is cheap, ”argues Río, who has designed nine of the dozen courses in Spain. Most are in urban parks or adventure areas for rural tourism, but the big niche is the golf courses themselves.

Disc golf does not need a lot of land and enjoys obstacles such as trees or bushes. With a good design, the most underused areas of golf courses could be used to play disc golf. “This is what is happening here in Norway and one of the expansion routes that sport can have in Spain. I would also like to make frisbees in Spain. There is much to do ”, ends Rio, with a story as a farewell.

Why do we talk about frisbee if we want to say frisbee? Frisbee is the trade name, it's like Kleenex or Tipp-Ex. Returning from World War II, an American soldier, Walter Frederick Morrison , was unemployed when he saw kids fly metal plates from the Frisbie Pie cake company. He took out the plastic patent, years later he sold it to the Wham-O company, and when it expired, a lot of companies started making frisbees. So we know flying discs by that name.

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