Mexico City.- Like the members of the artistic swimming team, the Mexican divers seek their own resources due to the lack of support from Conade.
Given the withdrawal of the sports scholarships from the organization led by Ana Guevara, the Olympic divers Alejandra Orozco and Gabriela Agúndez will seek their own resources to pay for the Olympic cycle to Paris 2024.
As a last option, they have thought of auctioning the bronze medal they won at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, on the synchronized 10-meter platform, but first they will seek to exhaust instances with the help of private initiative and as speakers.
“We are looking for the private initiative, to give conferences to share our experiences, for people to go see us train, it happened to us to auction the medal, we hope we do not reach that situation, we are looking for the best way to get to Paris,” explained Agúndez.
The diver pointed out that the lack of sports scholarships has affected her mental health in her training, although they will seek that the medals in diving are not at risk for the next Olympic event.
“It could happen (that Mexico is left without medals), but we are not going to allow it.
It has affected, there were days that our mind was scattered, we were training and we were thinking about something else,” he insisted.
The divers got their pass to the Fukuoka World Cup, to be held in July, where they will seek the Olympic place for the Country at the Paris 2024 Games.
World Aquatics (formerly FINA) will cover plane tickets, food and lodging for 10 divers.
Ana Guevara said that she will not issue any opinion regarding the lack of support.
Orozco commented that aquatic athletes are closing ranks due to the problem that Conade withdrew their scholarships since December.
“We know what the other is going through, we understand what is happening and we are looking to make a team. We need to prepare and be present in the competitions.”
“Our coach has not received a salary since December”
“We want to seek more people to join this boat with a lot of tide, we believe that if we are more, we are stronger, and those who join this objective will be on that platform (for diving) in Paris,” said the double Olympic medalist Ale Orozco on court.
For his part, Agúndez pointed out that the costs to be covered in his preparation are high and that his coach, Iván Bautista, has not received a salary since December.
“We do not collect our scholarship (from Conade), it is affecting our preparation and our path to the Olympic Games, because how are we going to prepare if we do not have the certainty and the resources to go compete and for day to day, “he said Gaby.
“I am a foreigner in Guadalajara (where I train), I pay rent, my meals, my transportation and we are seeing it difficult, but Ale and I do not take our finger off the line: We have a clear objective and we want to fight for another medal in the Olympic Games”.
Orozco invited the private initiative to join his preparation for Paris 2024.
“I would invite you to join forces, we like to respond on the platform, we want to return that grain of sand that they are giving us and that they look for us directly or on our social networks, we are in the best position to tell them about this plan. We are knocking on doors to dedicate ourselves to what corresponds to us”.
