It was a Saturday afternoon in Rio de Janeiro and the sun was shining in Barra de Tijuca. That August 6, 2016, the first competition day of the Olympic Games, a golden page was written in the history of our beloved Argentine sport.
Under the imposing roof of the Arena 2 stadium in the Olympic Park, thousands of Brazilians shouted “Ko-re-a, Co-re-a!” On the other side of the stands, a handful of Argentines responded: “Peque! Peque! “.
Paula Belén Pareto was going for a dream, for the gold medal in judo in the 48 kg category. her in front of the Korean Jeong.
Holding the microphone chain 3, with our hearts beating with pure emotion, we tried to narrate for “La Previa”, that magical and unforgettable moment offered to us by an athlete that time will turn into a legend: on the Carioca tatami, Pareto suffered a cut on his lip due to blows type Korean boxing at the minute of the fight. And when she came back, she found her way around to score a waza-ari, the second most important score in judo, after ippon (knockout).
There were two minutes left and the strategy was to resist and get stuck on the tatami. This is how the final seconds passed until the expected scream, until the endless hug with Mama Mirta and her friends. With colleagues or former colleagues. And with Laura, her coach, her guide.
And then the tears, the emotion, the raised arms and that long-awaited gold medal, hanging on the chest, in the Olympus of world sport.
“La Peque” became the first Argentine woman in history to be an Olympic champion. She already had a bronze in Beijing 2008, something that no woman had achieved either. She also obtained an Olympic diploma in London 2012. She had already become World Champion in 2015 in Astana, Kazakhstan.
The swimmer Jeannette Campbell paved the way for the Olympic medals for national athletes when she hung the silver medal in Berlin 1936. The athlete Noemí Simonetto followed her with another silver medal in London 1948.
It took forty years for the tennis player Gabriela Sabatini to also win silver in Seoul 1988. And the bronzes came later, with the sailor Serena Amato in Sydney 2000, the swimmer Georgina Bardach in Athens 2004.
That was the end of his successful interim biography: but there is another “Little” Pareto. The one that she started practicing judo at the age of 9 in San Fernando. The one that represented Estudiantes de Plata for which it took three hours to go, between train and bus. The one who trained for two hours in the afternoon and slept at a friend’s in La Plata. The one that the next morning practiced another two hours and again three hours traveling to return. The one who studied, while training and reaping glory in the sport.
And he studied where he could, on the train, on the bus, in concentrations, wherever he had a minute. The one that one day she received her medical degree and became Dr. Pareto. The resident doctor. The one that made magic over time so that both vocations can coexist. The one who got up at 5 in the morning to carry out her residency in a public hospital. The one who worked 14 hours, if she didn’t have a 24-hour shift. The one who trained tirelessly at the Cenard, every afternoon.
This is Pareto’s life: between the ambo, the judoguis (judokas’ clothing) and solidarity. He squeezes every minute of the day. She continues to travel by public transport, said in Cordoba, the Olympic Champion Doctor travels by bus and sometimes the drivers do not want to charge her. She is Dr. Paula Belén Pareto. She is 35 years old and continues to dream and sacrifice herself for those dreams. She says that the important thing is to enjoy the journey, the process, then the result is a consequence of the previous work.
This is the story of a golden judoka, of a fighter for life, of a “Little” of 48 kgs, who that afternoon in Rio de Janeiro that we were lucky enough to tell, felt a giant climb to the top of the Olympic podium and with the gold medal hanging on his chest.
With hundreds of flags waving, with a roaring Rio de Janeiro stadium, as if it were a soccer field prior to a classic. With those arms raised to climb to heaven, without feeling like a star. With those tears that are the closest thing to happiness. Paula Pareto, a gold doctor.
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