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Mikael Aprahamian dreams big: “I’m going for a medal”

In Rio 2016 he stayed at the door of the classification. In Tokyo 2020 it felt outside. And now, already classified to compete in judo, Mikael Aprahamian has no doubts about his goal: “I’m going for a medal, I know it’s very difficult but if I don’t set myself that goal directly, I’m not going. You always have to aspire to the top ”.

In a talk that took place in El Observador’s Twitter Spaces ElespaciodeReferí, Aprahamian reviewed his sporting history, his qualification process and the final stretch of his preparation to jump to the mat next Tuesday 27 in the -81 kilos category. The competitions will begin at 11:00, at 23:00 on Monday in Uruguay.

“I started doing sports at the Náutico with my brother Pablo. We did everything and we even played basketball at Unión Atlética. But at that age you end up dedicating yourself to the sport where you stand out the most and I, at the age of youth, decided on judo ”, he said.

Aprahamian devoted himself to the sport while also studying and working in the family business that allowed him to go abroad to compete.

Aprahmian is one of the heavenly hopes in Tokyo 2020

He graduated in foreign trade, but is also a personal trainer and is currently studying a master’s degree in sports management in Valencia.

There he settled three years ago in a club that gave him a small room to live in, meals and financial help to pay for travel.

In this judo, to aspire to the highest, the Olympic Games, there is no other choice than to go out and compete.

In Grand Slams, in Grand Prix, in open tournaments, in World Cups and in Pan American Games.

In the last eight years, Aprahamian traveled the world to score points for his ranking.

However, in 2016 the qualifier was his brother Pablo, whom he went to see as a fan at the Carioca Arena in Rio 2016.

This time he classified through the continental quota that is reserved for those athletes who do not enter the first 18 of the world ranking.

“In Tokyo we will be 34 athletes, they compete for direct elimination although from the quarterfinals there is a play-off”, he said.

“I know all the rivals, there are videos of all and I know what I have to do to complicate them all. I’m right-handed and I have a fighting strategy to compete ”, he advanced.

Belgium, Israel and Japan are the last three world champions and for Aprahamian they are the favorites to occupy the podium. In judo, because it is a combat sport, two bronzes are distributed.

“A month ago I competed in the World Championship in Budapest and the preparation continued. Luckily this year there were very good support from the Olympic Committee and the National Sports Secretariat to be able to finance the trips, bring Rodrigo as a sparring partner from Uruguay and put together a team with a coach, psychologist, physio and nutritionist ”, he revealed.

Aprahamian went looking for spots all over the world.

In 2019 he won the Yaounde Open, in Cameroon. In 2020 he was bronze at the Dakar Open, in Senegal. In 2019 it was silver at the Quito Open. On June 22, the International Federation informed him that he was classified.

Judoka reaches the Olympic Games at a very good level

Covid-19 got in the way two weeks after starting the trip to Tokyo. He had symptoms for just one day, and had to go outside to train.

He just tested negative this Wednesday, a few days before taking a flight to Japanese lands (and after having postponed his trip to Japan for four days), with the nerves and anxiety that this situation generated in the athlete because if it did not give a negative result to the covid -19 couldn’t get to Tokyo, after all the effort he had made to get here.

“I am currently at 84 kilos, I am very well. I have to give the weight two days before the competition and on the day of the competition I may have a surprise weigh-in. It is not useful for the athlete to go down and up a lot permanently, but when I need it I have a special suit with which I train and can lose three kilos in an hour ”, he said.

Because of his love of the sport, Aprahamian has not only traveled the world but done crazy things to scour the whole of Scotland in search of a needle.

It turns out that in judo the cartilages of the ears tend to break often. “Liquid accumulates and the pressure in the ears is unbearable, so you have to prick to get the liquid out. It happened to me in Rio and I went to a hospital, I used insurance and they cut me off in surgery. But in Scotland I went out to get a syringe. I visited all the pharmacies and syringes are not sold in that country. I went to a hospital and they wanted to charge me 100 euros. I ended up going to a piercing shop where they gave me a tremendous needle where I could prick myself and remove a lump that had been generated. The relief was impressive, ”he recalled.

Four minutes await him in Tokyo to start dreaming of his medal. For that he dedicated his whole life to judo.

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