Estefanía Nieto Trinidad, second DAN black belt, technical director of sports schools (TD1 and TD2) in judo and self-defense, sports instructor, as well as an entrepreneur in La Zarza. His beginnings in the world of judo were at the age of 7 precisely in this town where he lives, in the NOYBE Gymnasium, until he was 16 years old, under the guidance of Domingo Ceborro and continued at the Stabia Judo Club in Mérida, with Miguel Martinez. She currently competes in the national club league, with the Club Stabia judo team, and teaches classes in La Zarza at her new Judo Club, called TANDOKU.
Have you always known that your sport was judo or have you practiced others?
I started doing other sports such as rhythmic gymnastics, athletics, volleyball and extracurricular activities, because I have always really liked sports and staying active. With judo I started when I was 7 years old. My cousins taught judo with the one who was, and still is, my sensei.
I came to a class by chance and it caught my attention, but at that time my parents did not agree with me practicing this sport, although later I decided it ended up being another of the many activities I practiced after leaving school. As I grew older and my studies became more demanding, I had to choose what I spent my time on, since it was scarcer. I had to discard some of the sports that I practiced and little by little I was left alone with judo, it was the one that attracted me the most.
How has your career in the world of sports been? Has it always been a part of your life?
As I have mentioned, I practiced several sports, until I decided on judo. When I had been practicing judo for quite some time and was in the best years of competition, another martial art began to become fashionable, ju-jisut. My sensei decided to take advantage of his good physical shape so that he could enter the competition, and win a medal at the national level.
It has always been present in my day to day since I was very little, I have always been very restless in that aspect, I was not a girl who liked to spend time doing nothing. But when I grew up, the responsibilities also grew, the family business required my help, therefore I had to withdraw a bit from the world of sports, I couldn’t dedicate as much time to it as I would have liked. But I have never stopped doing it. Apart from my judo classes, I was also always looking for a space to take the bike, I relaxed a lot, and as I have already said, being still was not my thing, sport has always been and continues to be present in my life, it is part of me.
Have you considered dedicating yourself to sports professionally or have you ever had the opportunity?
Being a professional athlete requires a lot of effort, commitment and 100% of the time, two of those three abilities I had, however the third I did not. You must be clear that this is your goal from a very young age to be able to fight for it and be at the level that professional sport demands. By the time I was able to make the decision to dedicate myself to it, it was no longer possible, because I was too old.
The opportunity presented itself, but I was a minor and my parents decided for me, they then decided against it.
How has the fact of living in a town influenced this trajectory? Are the opportunities more limited?
My limited track record and few opportunities. We had few colleagues when it came to training, we had to go out to visit friendly clubs, we always depended on vehicles that were not always available.
However, I notice a lot of change today, the opportunities are other, there are many more options and sport is part of the daily commitment that the town makes with its inhabitants. The town has improved a lot in this sense, although it will surely improve more.
It is often evident that women’s sport goes unnoticed, have you felt any impediment in the sports field because you are a woman?
Luckily in this sport I have never felt any impediment or any kind of discrimination. In judo the competitions were divided by gender and weight, therefore it was equal and no one had fewer opportunities.
It is true that in classes there was a majority of the masculine gender against the feminine. But that didn’t matter to me, and I even used it to my advantage. Since as a general rule I trained with boys who were stronger than me and this served me well in the face of competition, because my competitions were against girls of a lower weight than my colleagues with whom I practiced.
How do you think women’s sport could be given visibility in such a way that it matches the visibility that men’s competitions have?
There should be no difference in choosing an activity due to being a man or a woman. Sport is not for boys or girls, sport is health, it is a matter of taste and dedication. And any activity will be positive for our physique and also our mind, regardless of whether we are male or female. And so I believe that it should be inculcated in families, since I believe that they are the maximum reference at an early age and I believe that sons and daughters should be encouraged to play sports and not be conditioned by the fact that they consider that it is a sport that It’s not for girls or it’s not for boys, sport has no gender or sex.
On the other hand, soccer sometimes overshadows the rest of sports because it is not a sport for the masses. Do you think other sports need more visibility? How could this be achieved?
Yes, indeed football outshines other sports.
In fact, at an early age, in cases where a child does not like soccer, they end up not playing any sport. This is due to numerous factors. In the first place in the family nucleus it is usually the sport that is talked about, for which the most admiration is felt and therefore the one that is most encouraged. In addition, it is the one that appears the most in the media, therefore the one that has the most reference. The media mostly echo this sport and practically never others. Opportunities for other sports, especially in the towns, are very limited. Not to mention that sports advertising practically in all cases is carried out by male soccer players. For all this they become references, and this causes children and adults to admire them and prefer to practice soccer and not other sports, which of course do not give either fame or money, to earn a living.
To give more visibility to other sizes, first of all I would propose to improve all this that I have mentioned, if the referents change the priorities change and this preferential tendency towards football also. For this to be possible, these sports need to have larger budgets that allow them to become known, and for this to be possible, it is necessary to obtain equitable aid and subsidies from public institutions for other sports, so that the media talk about all kinds of competitions and not just sports, and that in urban centers, and especially in towns, all the sports options available are reported through digital platforms or any other method, since sometimes the inhabitants do not know that there are opportunity to practice other sports in the village.
Now you have launched an entrepreneurship project in relation to sport, what does it consist of?
It is a registered judo school in La Zarza and approved at the regional level, that is, we focus on the practice of this sport at an early age, from 4 years onwards. However, we also have the option of training adults, although they are a minority. In this school we instill the values that this sport provides us, we teach judokas to fall and knock down their opponents through playful games, psychomotricity exercises, competitions, gatherings, etc.
Apart from judo we have also started a personal training project, in small groups. We do a scheduled follow-up to each of our clients and correct bad habits. This project is focused on ending obesity, physical inactivity and improving health and quality of life.
Do you think that the bramble fosters sport and the opportunities around it?
In Zarza if it is encouraged. But the problem is that there is a lot of abandonment in sport, it is practiced as a hobby and not as an activity that you commit to and focus on, there is no continuity. This makes it very difficult for businesses that want to make a living from this, because habits change so often that it doesn’t allow them to stay afloat. One day an activity is practiced a lot and the next day they have forgotten about it.
What do you propose so that the bush promotes more sports activities and professional opportunities in the world of sports?
Although I consider that if sports activities are promoted, I also consider that this is not done with professional opportunities around sports. There are many people trained in the world of sports and very few can live only from their profession. On the part of the public institutions there should be less offer of activities so as not to overshadow those that already do it privately, since small businesses cannot compete with the offers made by public institutions at very low prices or even free. I would like to help businesses that focus on sports instead of competing with them, because then there can never be this type of business in the town. And support more professionals in this “world” with events at the local level.
Do you have any goals left to accomplish in the world of sports?
Continue to be constant in my work and never leave sport aside because it is a complicated profession. Renew myself if necessary, continue training in this aspect to be the order of the day and continue encouraging everyone to practice sport and making it easier for them to do so. Because sport, whatever it is practiced, is equivalent to health.
