San Juan de los Morros.– The bronze medal in the mixed double modality of the South American Games Cochabamba 2018 it was the last international achievement of the Venezuelan badminton champion Michelle Zorilleth Martínez Machuca, who died on Thursday, April 30 in Medellín, Colombia, due to respiratory failure that, according to the ruler Nicolas Maduro, was associated with COVID-19.
Maduro’s version contrasts with the publications of some Colombian media, which indicate that Martínez, allegedly, gave negative to the test of coronavirus, according to the Secretary of Health of Medellín, an entity that supposedly guaranteed the athlete’s care.
The badminton player born in the rural population of Tucupido, José Félix Ribas municipality of the Guárico state, decided to go to Colombia in 2018 and for two years on New Granada’s soil lived a sobering story, like that of the displaced who fled the Complex Humanitarian Emergency (EHC ) suffered by Venezuelans.
Martínez did not have the financial need to migrate to Colombia, but decided to undertake a new professional challenge in his life, he told The Pitazo a relative of Michelle. «She was the number one in badminton in the country and did not have the financial need to leave, but she left for a contract with a badminton club in Medellín, where she would train and continue competing with the national team. Venezuela«He explained.
After knowing the statements of Nicolás Maduro, in which he pointed out that the athlete was abandoned and did not have the proper attention of the Colombian health authorities, the journalist Ricardo Tarazona, published on Saturday, May 2, on his Twitter account, which he spoke with his friend Luis Josfrán Agelvis and he assured him that he lived in a residence in Medellín with his sister Jeisnaimil Agelvis and the badminton player from Guarique.
According to the testimony written by Tarazona on the social network, Martínez was in isolation at the residence where he lived with four Venezuelans and died in the arms of the Agelvis brothers. “We applied CPR – cardiopulmonary resuscitation – but to no avail,” said Luís Josfrán.
An eye-opening video
In 2018, Michelle Martínez decided to venture to coffee lands in search of a better future, but she found hard days that taught her to grow as a human being and as a professional. This is what the multi-champion badminton recounts in a revealing video that was recorded on February 22 and published this Saturday, May 2 on the YouTube account CBR Britos.
With tears in her eyes, Michelle explains, in that video, the obstacles she overcame during the first months in Medellin. She said that she arrived accompanied by her brother, her brother-in-law and her partner. The four faced the reality that the migrant lives in a foreign country.
“There were just the four of us and we had to pay rent, food, this and that, and they didn’t give us … we had to go hungry in days and it was very hard …”, expressed Martínez. He remembered with nostalgia December 31, 2018 and the feeling of hearing the sounds of the bells, far from home, isolated from the family.
After overcoming difficult months, Michelle understood that the game as a migrant was not over and required the courage and enthusiasm that she always showed on the court. “It is very hard when you arrive and collide with reality … you have to put a lot of desire and a lot of energy into it … It hit us hard, but we went ahead,” she stressed.
From athlete to coach
The number one badminton racket in Guarico and Venezuela he followed in the footsteps of his brother and coach Jordan Martínez. Michelle considered as one of her best experiences the process in which she brought her knowledge as an athlete and shared it with dozens of children whom she trained, as part of the team of teachers at the Poona Badminton Club in Medellín.
“It is a role that one assumes overnight and one has to know how to handle children and their parents … every day for me is a blessing, since it is pure learning,” Martinez stressed.
READ ALSO
Badminton family fires multi-medalist Michelle Martínez through networks
Michelle always had the support of her relatives in Venezuela and at the time of the aforementioned interview she described with her smile the good time she was living in the Poona club, which she considered her second family.
A message for Venezuelans …
The multi-medalist from Guárico sent a message to those Venezuelans who, like her, left the country in search of a better future. She invited them not to be afraid and to boldly write their own stories. In addition, Michelle urged her compatriots not to give up; she dreamed of coming home one day and hugging her loved ones.
“Those of us who are outside continue to fight to one day return and strengthen our family ties that at some point vanished, because there are family members who are far away and a reunion would be difficult. I think it would not be long for God to reach out and be able to bring us all together and be a free country, “said the multi-champion badminton in an interview published on the YouTube account CBR Britos.
Jesús Sánchez: “Michelle never gave up”
The sudden death of the young badminton player, at 22, left a void in family, friends and sports lovers in Venezuela. Young Jesús Sánchez, Martínez’s teammate and duo at the 2018 South American Games in Cochabamba, where they both took the podium for the bronze medal, mourned the death of Michelle and considered her as a sister on the court.
“She never gave up, she gave everything to the end. After a defeat she told us ‘losing is also won, losing is learning from mistakes’. She always with her positive mind filled us with good energy, “Sánchez told The Pitazo.
Pedro Izzosports
Pedro Izzosports
