Mexico City.- Leaving Mexico has been an option for several Mexican athletes in search of fulfilling their dreams.
Tired of the lack of clarity in the selection processes of the Mexican Swimming Federation, world medalist Viviana del Ángel decided to seek an opportunity at the University of Minnesota, where she is now an NCAA medalist.
Olympic diver Aranza Vázquez migrated to the United States to seek a better life and more competitive training at the University of North Carolina, where today she is a double champion in the NCAA, the highest university category where Olympic medalists such as the American multi-medalist Katy Ledecky have emerged. .
Athletes migrate for innumerable reasons: technical controls that do not benefit them, mismanagement within their federations, for more training, to seek a better life, to flee digital violence and cyberbullying, as in the case of the soccer player Scarlett. Camberos, where the virtual world became a physical threat.
The call from the United States has been powerful, but also in Uzbekistan, the Dominican Republic and Australia have found opportunities.
LIVE DEL ÁNGEL ALTERNATIVE REALITY IN THE US
A point in a technical control separated her from going to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games on the 10-meter platform and that was the watershed for the diver Viviana del Ángel to migrate to the University of Minnesota, in the United States.
“Things start to get a little weird when the selection processes for Tokyo begin, and they tell you ‘look, you came in second, but no, the fourth place is going to go. It was your turn, but no. I’m a athlete, not a token that moves'”, Viviana stated in an interview with CANCHA by telephone from Minnesota.
After a one-year journey, the world medalist went on to be accepted to the University, moved to Minnesota last year and says that since the start of this season she has had the constant training she needed to raise her level.
“That was something that I had stopped having, a constant competition and it is something that the United States allows you and for which many athletes come to study here for the competition and the constant training,” he says.
Currently, she is studying Business and Marketing because she dreams of having a business. To his training plan he added work in the gym, which in Mexico he did not have in a structured way and which has allowed him to have greater mastery of the 10-meter platform, where he became a bronze medalist in the NCAA Championships. the highest university category.
“On the academic side, the decision to come here was a huge effort, to speak another language, to be away from my family and my friends, to change the coach, the pool, that was what I wanted and needed and those positive changes gave me that result.
“I could see that with the training I took, despite combining it with the school, I was able to give a good result. I realized many things from this process.”
In the mornings he has weight training from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m., he studies at the University until 2:15 p.m. and from 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. he trains diving.
He wants to take his next leap to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, he will return to Mexico to seek his classification in the internal controls towards the Central American and Caribbean Games in El Salvador, where he is a medalist, and then towards the Santiago 2023 Pan American Games.
“I am ready, I am prepared, I have trained for many years and I have experience, I am going to do what is in my hands, external things related to federations and decisions are no longer in my control, but it will not be up to me to try. I am going to look to go to my first Olympic Games”.
‘OPPORTUNITY TO IMPROVE AND COMPETE’
Mexican Olympic medalist Aranza Vázquez migrated to the University of North Carolina to compete at a higher level and study for a university degree to expand her vision of the world.
“One of the biggest reasons why I came here is to be able to compete, to have more experience. I’m in one of the best schools in the country and in the world, not only athletically, which is going to end at some point, but also to have support for when this period of our lives is over. Here I have met other people from many sports, I have not only grown as an athlete but also as a person,” Aranza told CANCHA by telephone from North Carolina.
Aranza was part of the Mexican delegation to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and last weekend the Baja Californian became the first diver from UNC’s Carolina Swimming & Diving program to win a national title in the 1 meter springboard and later he was enshrined with another gold in the springboard 3 meters.
“I’m very proud of what I was able to achieve. One of the biggest differences is having more opportunities to improve and compete, you can look at how to dive better and getting started gives you more confidence in yourself and you know how to handle nerves, adrenaline and everything that includes competing on such a big stage,” he says.
After the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, which were held a year later due to the pandemic, Aranza went through a post-Olympic depression and saw that light at the end of the tunnel.
“It was a long and quite difficult process, last year I struggled to be myself in training and competitions. Personally I had not heard anything about this post-Olympic depression, I feel that it is very important that I can talk about my experience and demonstrate Yes, you can get out, I didn’t know of anyone who had gone through this and I felt alone.
“Athletes have this stigma that we can against everything and that nothing can bring us down, but it’s not reality. I talked to my coaches and little by little I realized that I didn’t have to do something extraordinary or always be the best or win every competencies”, he deepens.
She studies Sports Sciences at the University of North Carolina, where she is 100 percent on a scholarship and her goal is to qualify for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, but her priority is to take care of her mental health during the Olympic process.
“I want to get to Paris 2024, I want to go to World Cups, Pan American Games, the World Cup and all the competitions, but without getting mentally tired.”
OTHER CASES
Paola Pliego, fencer
The Mexican fencer has represented the flag of Uzbekistan since 2019 after she could not enter international competitions with Mexico for approximately three years due to failures by the Mexican sports authorities.
Fernanda Herrera, fencer
The fencer, sister of Paola Pliego, won the gold medal in March as a naturalized Uzbekistan at the Asian Championship in Tashkent. The 17-year-old athlete was naturalized by Uzbekistan four years ago, when she was 13, in the same year that her sister did.
Scarlett Camberos, soccer player
The soccer player signed for Angel City to flee from digital violence and the harassment she lived for long months when she was a player for America by a user who came to intimidate her near her home and the main person responsible for hacking her social networks.
Linda Ochoa, goalkeeper
Since September 2019, the Mexican goalkeeper Linda Ochoa represented the United States. The compound bow specialist decided in March of that year to resign from the Mexican Archery Federation and compete for the US due to the mismanagement of her federation in Mexico.
Jonathan Ruvalcaba, diver
The lack of clarity in the internal selections of the Mexican Swimming Federation was the main reason why the Mexican Jonathan Ruvalcaba decided to become a naturalized Dominican.
