Ana Peleteiro: “Being an athlete and mother is very difficult, but being a worker and mother, too†| Sports

The paths to perfection follow labyrinths that moralists, so elevated, so blind, do not see, and Ana Peleteiro was always told: not that way, Ana. They continue to tell her that now. When he appeared in an Almodóvar movie. Her when she announced that she was pregnant. When, horrified, they discovered that during her pregnancy, the athlete had become an influencer, a queen of the networks with more than 400,000 followers on Instagram. Either athlete or celebrity, they warned. “Athlete and celebrity,†she responded. she “And also a mother. And she is stronger than ever. Each person has their own way.

“I earn more money with social networks than with athletics, that is a reality, and what I don’t want is for that to end when I stop winning medals,†he says as soon as he returned to high competition, and Lúa, her daughter has already been 14 months old. “And, of course, I want to continue winning medals for many more years.” With a jump of 14.32 meters, she has already become Spanish champion again and has qualified for the Glasgow Indoor World Championships in March, and in June the European Championships in Rome await her and in August, the Olympic Games. Paris.

He reaches everything despite everyone.

That’s where you’re going wrong, they told her at the age of 16 when, recently proclaimed world youth triple jump champion (and she already reached 14.17 meters), Ana Peleteiro exhibited, along with her wonderful athletic quality, her talent , a strong character and personality that broke. Conflicts were inevitable. Athletics, her life, became overwhelming. Not even the world understood her, always trying to find herself, nor did she understand the world. In June 2013, Peleteiro finished high school and left Galicia and Abelardo Moure, her longtime coach, to train in Madrid with Juan Carlos Álvarez; She left Madrid in April 2016 to go to Lisbon with João Ganço, who in her training group also guided Nelson É vora, Olympic champion in Beijing 2008; Six months later she decided to return to Spain, to a villa in Guadalajara, where she has gone to live. In almost five years she had not jumped as far as she did at age 16. She was not yet 21 and Peleteiro was already working with the fourth coach of her career, Iván Pedroso. It’s going to be bad for her, those who felt wise, those who were always wrong, puritanically predicted. Peleteiro, a Galician from Ribeira, claimed her African blood; Her association with the Cuban gene of her coach, the false relaxation that Pedroso promotes, was the best complement to her.

“More than anything, I had known her for many years before starting to work with her,†Pedroso recalls when almost seven years of such fruitful joint work have passed that it led to Peleteiro, who has completed the 28, to be one of the best athletes in the world, Olympic medalist and owner of a brand, 14.87 meters, already top level. “I knew what she was like, I knew what her character was like… and since she came I already knew how to work with her. When there are injuries, discomforts, conflicts, you should never get stressed and think that the world is going to end there, and want to fix the problems in one day. There are problems that are fixed in a day and others that are fixed in a month, but always face them calmly, relaxed, so things flow better. Ana joined the group of athletes she trained, including Yulimar Rojas, the best jumper in history, and little by little she has entered into that dynamic of wanting more, wanting more, and that is what It interests me, more than anything.â€

The human organism is wise, and hormones even more so. Mothers are stronger than any other women. Athletes who leave motherhood come back stronger. “It is like this with Ana, who has also regained her strong point, which is speed. She is faster than ever. She is more focused and more motivated. Lúa makes her stronger,†says Pedroso, who has rarely said to her that you are doing something wrong, Ana. €œEach person plans their life as they think best. With Ana we talk about everything, we discuss it in advance. Ana knows that she has to sacrifice some things. She knows that she must have time to rest and that a daughter is a plus from more work. Trust between coach and athlete is the key to her results. Now I understand her better than when we started, when she had to make me more serious, and she listens to me. And she is more mature. It is a difficult decision for female athletes. The woman is the one who gives birth, the one who has to breastfeed… but the girl is already running, she is almost talking… The most difficult part of parenting has already passed.

Ana Peleteiro, last summer, in a photo shoot for SModa.

“The first six months after giving birth, I laughed at the idea that the mother is stronger and I said that I didn’t know who had invented that lie, but now I do notice that in certain aspects I’m stronger. And I don’t know if it’s because I’ve given birth or because I’m also trying harder than before. When I go to the track I focus all my energy on training and before it was more dispersed. Motherhood has given me a lot of focus. Maybe I’m stronger for having been a mother or maybe because I train harder and try harder than before,†the athlete explains. “I get a lot less angry. When something doesn’t go the way I want, I ignore it, I say, damn, if I have a wonderful job, I’m very lucky to be able to dedicate myself to what I like the most, but it’s not what I live off of, nor does that stop me from When I get home I have my family waiting for me with a smile. If being a high-level athlete does not allow you to create your family, have a bond and a healthy circle, everything ends in frustration. I live without frustration. Having a family around that makes me happy helps me de-emphasize athletics.â€

Peleteiro has learned to understand the world. The world has no choice but to understand her.

“The person who returns is a completely different person, because motherhood changes you in all aspects for better or worse. After 14 months since I gave birth, I have already managed to stabilize myself both emotionally and physically,†she explains. “It has been like starting from scratch, because my birth was by cesarean section and it was a complicated birth. When they told me I had to have a cesarean section, I saw everything a little black, because I feared that the recovery was going to be much slower, but I didn’t have any setbacks. What I always said happened, if they give me health and a baby that sleeps well, I know I will return. I know that I will be the same as before.â€

Neither moralistic nor moralizing, Peleteiro escapes easy temptation in his networks. “I do not seek to be an example of anything. I share my reality, I share my day to day life, and if there are people who identify with my life, which I think is quite natural and normal, then great. Social networks are a space where people are inspired in a very positive way but also in a very negative way. Being an athlete and being a mother is very difficult, yes, but it is also very difficult to be a worker in a normal job and be a mother, and that happens to all women. Motherhood is complicated, work-life balance is very difficult,’ says the athlete, who, as a member of Team Spain, has the help of the Higher Sports Council to hire a nanny while she and her husband, who are also n triple jumper Benjamin Compaoré, they train and compete. “There are many sports women who perhaps do not dare to be mothers due to their economic situation, because they could not afford to have a caregiver at home and pay her a thousand euros a month to take care of their children.†.

You can follow EL PAÍS Deportes on Facebook and Xor sign up here to receive our weekly newsletter.

Subscribe to continue reading

Lee sin límites

_

2024-02-25 04:15:00
#Ana #Peleteiro #âœBeing #athlete #mother #difficult #worker #mother #tooâ #Sports