  We prove a universal inequality between the diastole, defined using a minimax
process on the one-cycle space, and the area of closed Riemannian surfaces.
Roughly speaking, we show that any closed Riemannian surface can be swept out
by a family of multi-loops whose lengths are bounded in terms of the area of
the surface. This diastolic inequality, which relies on an upper bound on
Cheeger's constant, yields an effective process to find short closed geodesics
on the two-sphere, for instance. We deduce that every Riemannian surface can be
decomposed into two domains with the same area such that the length of their
boundary is bounded from above in terms of the area of the surface. We also
compare various Riemannian invariants on the two-sphere to underline the
special role played by the diastole.
