Alejandra Valencia has always been a very competitive person with a sporting spirit, this is how her mother, Mrs. Elizabeth Trujillo Carranza, describes her.
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Exclusively for The Sun of Hermosillo, commented that the Covid-19 pandemic has been a series of obstacles for athletes and athletes since 2020, the year in which the Tokyo Olympic Games were scheduled. However, after many dialogues and reorganization, they will finally take place from July 23 to August 8 of this year.
“There was a lot of pressure at the international level, the organizing committees were looking for a way to make the event possible because it was more difficult to cancel it. We did not know what was going to happen, but we were sorry that they were suspended because the girls were very prepared… it was time ”.
He mentioned that Alejandra never stopped her workouts, although she did have to adapt to do them from home.
Try until you get there
Although Alejandra Valencia today is one of the most recognized athletes and Olympic medalists in the world in her discipline of archery, the truth is that her beginnings were somewhat distant from this sport.
Doña Elizabeth recalls that Alejandra started at a very young age in racing competitions and later became part of the girls’ soccer team at her school, where she began to stand out for her athletic skills and good physical condition.
“It has always been very competitive. She always said ‘I want to’, and even if it didn’t go well, she liked to participate. The physical education teacher told me that why not take her to the CUM because he saw that she had a facility for running. We took her and she said: I don’t like it… ”.
At the Centro de Usos Múltiples (CUM) in Hermosillo, Alejandra ventured into running, swimming and cycling, and despite having certain skills and abilities for these sports, none of them managed to fully awaken her passion. It wasn’t until one occasion when he was injured while riding a bicycle that the archery trainer used his medical kit and noticed the interest in his eyes.
“When he got home he told me ‘They invited me to join a sport, archery, the coach told me that they lend me a bow and the whole team.’ From there I no longer got it… ”.
From that moment, he said, for Alejandra archery became her passion and the sport that most attracted her, for which they as parents decided to fully support her, with ups and downs, learning hand in hand.
“I made a lot of mistakes as an athlete’s mother because, as I saw that he liked archery a lot, I used it to make sure he fulfilled his obligations. I told him: If you don’t finish your tasks, if you don’t raise your room, if you don’t comply with such a thing, you won’t train… ”.
As time went by, Elizabeth realized that when any boy or girl is passionate about something, call it sport, art, study, etc., there is no need for comments like the ones she used, because they create a discipline and a responsibility that makes them get ahead.
Drop and cheer from a distance
“After a year of training, she arrives very happy and tells me ‘I could put in all 6 arrows without one going off’, and then one says wow. But at first I didn’t understand; putting in the 6 arrows means 6 series of 6 arrows each, and there are 4 distances in which you have to shoot those 6 series… ”.
Starting from a very young age and having so much determination and passion for the discipline of archery soon paid off for Alejandra and, at just 9 years old, she had her first competition in Phoenix, Arizona; unfortunately the family’s financial situation made it impossible for them to accompany her.
Later, in the 11th National Children’s and Youth Olympiad, in 2006, he won his first bronze medal.
“After spending 3 years in archery, she has her first competition, it is a national Olympiad in Tlaxcala and she speaks to us very excited because she had won bronze; a single medal and a bronze … The first time I could do a lot for her to go out to the competition, until the coach told me to trust them, to trust the team, and I understood that I had to let her go … ”.
However, it was not until the Pan American Games of 2011, which took place in Guadalajara, Jalisco, when Alejandra Valencia captured all eyes by achieving the 2 gold medals, both individually and as a team, a fact that placed her in the olympic map. And although that was his best year, in 2012 the reality of his responsibility as an athlete hit him hard.
“There she was in her upper part, let’s put it like that and later she goes to a camp in Spain to do her training before London 2012 and there she suffers a lot. She began to have problems and to see the responsibility that she had that she would go to the Olympic games ”.
With some obstacles in between, Mrs. Elizabeth and a relative of hers managed to travel to London to be able to witness Alejandra’s competition, however, upon arriving at the place, she realized that her daughter was not well.
“Alejandra was eliminated later, later. It wasn’t her, he couldn’t talk to her; he didn’t know what was happening to him. I felt very bad because we did not have the communication that we could and it was a very hard blow, but it was also a great learning process ”.
Trust and faith involved
Four years later, at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games, Alejandra arrives with learning, maturity, and greater determination and self-confidence.
Once again, Dona Elizabeth and her family managed to accompany her on the trip, although they could not live together as long as they wanted, because her daughter had to remain in training.
Before the competitions, they managed to get away to eat and it was there that, he said, Alejandra gave him a great lesson.
“I asked him, who are you going against ?, and he said against the Korean (Choi Misun); The one that is ranked best in the world? Ay Alejandra, is the best in the world… and she says to me ‘and what does she have? Don’t you trust me? … And we entered the competition and there beats the best of the world”.
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After that historic triumph, Doña Elizabeth points out that the most important thing is always to trust the preparation that all athletes have had, especially their own. Therefore, although this time they have not been able to travel to Tokyo due to the restrictive measures, he remains hopeful that his daughter will do well and that she will have a wonderful experience.
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