One of the sports that I would have liked to cover in my career is the pentathlon. I love the variety of disciplines and I consider that the athlete who practices it has to be very complete. That is the case in the capital Leydi Laura Moya who at 32 years old is living a new life, building a better future.
That first and practically unexpected victory in the first Youth Olympic Games held in Singapore 2010, gave us a preview of what would become his sporting career.
Leydi, what is the best representative of the Cuban women’s pentathlon doing at this moment?
I live in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States; I have been here since December 2022. I just received my residency. I’m waiting to start working and I would like it to be in something in sports, but I work in whatever I need to get ahead.
How did you get there? You had been away from the pentathlon for years.
Yes, I retired three years ago, just after the Tokyo Olympics. I was not planning to leave Cuba because I was motivated to undertake another Olympic cycle, but when I restarted my training the effects began: there were no swimming pools, there were no horses, there were no bullets, there was nothing…
The same effects as always but I was 30 years old and my body no longer responded the same; I needed systematic training and I was having a hard time maintaining the level. It was then that I decided to retire.
Once I was away from sports, my boyfriend and I tried to start working at a gym in Kasa Kolhy but the situation became complicated; It was very difficult to live with the minimum and we focused on looking for a better future. And since the situation in Cuba is increasingly complicated, I jumped into the volcanoes, crossing borders… and here I am!
Do you have family left in Cuba?
My parents, my sisters, my dog live in Cuba… I dream of bringing them and here, in the United States, we want to increase the family; We are both looking for a child, let’s see when we are rewarded.
You recently announced the reason for your retirement, related to the few conditions that exist in Cuba to train something as complex as the pentathlon.
Conditions in Cuba? Truly there are none; The conditions are made by us athletes and coaches, always looking for where we can train and that, when possible; the track is hot, without a pool…anyway. As I told you before, that was the main reason why I retired.
In your sport, do you carry the horse or do they give it to you in the competition? If so, how do you get along with the steed?
In the pentathlon, the host country of the competition is the one that places the horse. There is an exhibition of the horses on the first day. The owner of the steed and the rider do the same route of the competition and there you keep accounts in a notebook, you write down the number of the horse and the characteristics of each one.
After that route, a draw is made and it is the order they give you to be able to go out and which horse you get. Then you have a warm-up time and it is where you get familiar with the animal. Those minutes in contact with the animal are what I like most about the five competitions: it gives a lot of nerve, a lot of adrenaline. It’s complicated but very beautiful.
After Paris 2024 they are going to eliminate horse riding, that is, change it to a game with obstacles.
Your first big win… you surprised in Singapore in 2010!
In Singapore I surprised myself, hahaha… I knew I could achieve things, but not as much as first place. At that time she trained very hard under the aegis of Adel O’rrelly and was very confident.
I was also seeing a psychologist because I always felt tired and the doctor helped me a lot to change my mind; My way of thinking was transformed towards the positive and that is how I achieved that result that opened many doors for me because as a result of that I was invited to many competitions. Yes, my sporting life definitely changed after the Youth Olympics.
In the III Modern Pentathlon World Cup that took place in Italy in April 2015, Leydi Laura was the best Latin American by occupying 15th place among almost a hundred rivals in the individual event.
He also partnered in the mixed relay with José Ricardo Figueroa, finishing in fifth place in this sport that consists of five modalities: fencing, swimming, horse riding and the combined shooting and running. In the individual competition, she stood out in batch A of 33 competitors, finishing second, which gave her a pass to the grand final, which was hosted by the first eight in each group and the 12 with the best times.
Fifth in the Guadalajara Pan American Games and gold in the Veracruz 2014 regional event, what memories do those multiple games bring back to you?
In Guadalajara were my first Pan American Games with adults and it was different, I still didn’t ride a horse. I was not well prepared because Katia, who stayed in Mexico, was going and then they took me.
They told me in Cuba that if I won a competition that was held, they would take me to the Pan American Games. I won it and the next day they told me that I was no longer going because I was not yet ready for the Adult Games.
In the end they had to take me because there was no other option and I was placed in a better position than the other Cuban who went and that was when I began to be the first Cuban pentathlon figure.
Veracruz was very good because for the first time a Cuban rose to the top of the podium in a regional event in my specialty, especially considering that we had very strong rivals, the Mexicans who have always been the best in Central America.
Bronze in Lima 2019, seventh in Toronto 2015, do you have many anecdotes to tell?
In Lima it was a catastrophe, I was left without medals in the individual and the bronze was in the mixed relay that we had a chance to do more, but the horses did not cooperate in that competition.
In Toronto we had many setbacks, we couldn’t even go to the horse show so I didn’t know the route. The trainer mixed up the schedule and I made a mistake with the horse. In swimming they put me in a heat that was not, I came in seventh; However, despite all these difficulties, I achieved Olympic qualification.
Far from the top in the Olympic Games, but I imagine that just participating is already a medal. What did you experience in Rio and Tokyo; Which one did you like more and why?
I think I enjoyed both competitions; In Rio I was in a good position, but I had mistakes in riding that cost me dearly. However, I really enjoyed the competition because we were able to go out and enjoy the Games.
In Tokyo we were locked down due to the pandemic; We could hardly train, we went without a coach because he got sick with COVID before leaving for the Japanese capital. It was the commissioner, the other classified pentlatonist Léster Ders and I; The three of us support each other and despite everything, we have a good time. I told you that I was inspired to look forward to another Olympic cycle but in Cuba dreaming is for pleasure.
In Japan, he scored 191 points in fencing, 275 in swimming, 291 in horse riding and 504 in the Laser run. The best test for him was horse riding, where he finished on the 15th step.
Of the five events, which one did you like the most?
Riding. For me it is the most beautiful, most exciting, it is very enjoyable and gives you a lot of adrenaline. However, I have to admit that it was not the one that worked best for me; He rode well, but where I got the best results was in shooting and fencing. Hahaha. But, without a doubt, horse riding is fascinating.
Pentathlete you admire most on the planet, male and female.
The Lithuanian Laura Asadauskaité who won gold at the 2012 London Games and the Russian Aleksander Lesun, now retired.
How and when did you get the idea to become a pentathlete?
I started swimming at the age of six, which I practiced in Cotorro; There they held swimming and running competitions and it had to do with the pentathlon and triathlon. At that time I swam and ran and in high school I received the “Marcelo” for swimming and the EIDE for the pentathlon.
At that time what I liked most was swimming and I went to high school at “Marcelo” but in the ninth grade I stopped swimming and to entertain myself I went to the Ciudad Deportiva and I started triathlon, but I didn’t like it because the bicycle is not the thing. mine.
So I was able to change for the EIDE, for the pentathlon, and I started training and a month later I went to the national pentathlon and won the competition. Since then I belonged to the national team.
People who have influenced you and your career?
I want to point out Alejandro Wash, my beloved coach since I was young. My old teammates, who were good rivals: Katia Rodríguez and Kenia Campos, both in Mexico, and Suaima García, who is in Qatar. When that happened, the women’s team was good.
Those who came after were not as strong, they did not have motivations, it was not the same level. I maintain good relationships with my usual colleagues. I talk to them very often.
I also have fond memories of Marcos Rojas who managed to qualify for the Paris Olympic Games and Léster Derts who was from my time and retired after the Pan American Games.
Already at the end of his career, on April 11, 2021, he placed fourth in the mixed relay of the I Modern Pentathlon World Cup, which concluded this day in Sofia, Bulgaria, a competition that served as a preamble to Tokyo , where in the middle of the pandemic she finished in 26th place (out of 36) in the women’s individual event, surpassing what she achieved five years ago in Rio de Janeiro (33).
If we had been able to count on the minimum training and competition conditions, what story would we be telling today about the Cuban pentathlete?
