Judoka of Cuban origin is ranked in the world

“I have been in judo all my life, basically I was born on a mattress (tatami). Judo was with me while I was growing up. I was a very active child, I couldn’t control myself and I started judo to see if I could be a little calmer focused on that and I started to be very good and train very hard”, said Menéndez, a resident of Miami, Floridato DIARIO LAS AMERICAS.

than the boy of origin Cuban has followed a path in judo, it is not the result of chance. As he himself explained and his parents confirm, judo has been in the family for a long time.

“My dad is my coach. Both my brother and I, who am the middle child, started practicing it as children, but it all started with my dad. Judo has a very special part in my heart because it played an important role in my parents meeting and they have been married for 39 years now. Judo was something that brought them together. Now my dad is almost 53 years old and he has never walked away from this sport, ”he emphasized.

According to Menéndez, when he took his first steps in judo, he felt that he “wanted to do something very big in this.”

“I like to set very big goals for myself, I don’t like to do things by halves. And when my brother started to make the world team, I took it more seriously too and the next year I made the same world team and we were training there every year. There came a time when he stopped and I continued training to the point where I am right now, basically I have trained all my life, ”he detailed.

Currently, Menéndez is at a very high level of judo, but, he confessed, “not as high as I wanted to be.”

“At this stage of my career I am number 200 in the world. could be higher in the top, but now I am in a very critical moment because I am going to have an opportunity to start traveling a lot more to grow in judo and to go up from that number 200 and try to enter the first 100 in the world and look for a better opportunity to make the Olympic team”, said the judoka who has gone from 48 kilos (as a child) to 55 (a couple of years), then to 60, until now consolidating in the 66 kg division. “I’ve been in that division for almost 3 years, it’s a very strong division, but I’m ranked,” he acknowledged.

The skills

As part of his career, Menéndez has traveled the world to compete, measure himself and try to earn points. He particularly remembers his participation in events in Santo Domingo, Peru as well and especially Japan, the cradle of judo.

Around three weeks ago, I went to Japan for a Grand Slam and I was there for two weeks. Judo is sacred to the Japanese and it was very gratifying to see the culture, the respect for the people and the sport that they have in that country. I wanted to have the opportunity to be there and fight, I am very grateful that I was able to see the Japanese culture with my own eyes. It was a very good experience, I learned a lot, I interacted with the competitors who were there, because I’m going to be competing with them, and honestly, my motivation increased to keep going and raise my level. This competition in Japan was an eye opener for me even though it wasn’t as big as some others. In Japan, which is the cradle of judo (and judo is lived the way we live basketball, baseball or soccer) I felt that my strength was at the same level as the best (there) in the world. I was very happy to be able to be at the same level as all those other competitors who have so many resources and I, with budget constraints, can still be at the same level or close to the same level that they are, knowing that I don’t have as many resources as them. That’s why I’m so grateful to have been able to get to that point, with my mom and dad supporting me with the opportunity to go there and fight, to get ahead. Around three weeks ago, I went to Japan for a Grand Slam and I was there for two weeks. Judo is sacred to the Japanese and it was very gratifying to see the culture, the respect for the people and the sport that they have in that country. I wanted to have the opportunity to be there and fight, I am very grateful that I was able to see the Japanese culture with my own eyes. It was a very good experience, I learned a lot, I interacted with the competitors who were there, because I’m going to be competing with them, and honestly, my motivation increased to keep going and raise my level. This competition in Japan was an eye opener for me even though it wasn’t as big as some others. In Japan, which is the cradle of judo (and judo is lived the way we live basketball, baseball or soccer) I felt that my strength was at the same level as the best (there) in the world. I was very happy to be able to be at the same level as all those other competitors who have so many resources and I, with budget constraints, can still be at the same level or close to the same level that they are, knowing that I don’t have as many resources as them. That’s why I’m so grateful to have been able to get to that point, with my mom and dad supporting me with the opportunity to go there and fight, to get ahead.

Economical support

In reality, Menéndez, the grandson of Cuban immigrants who left everything behind to find refuge in Florida, has taken the risk of judo relying solely on family financial resources. Budget constraints for a sport that requires heavy investment led the family to create an account in GoFundMe to get a kind of patronage that allows him to boost his career in the sport to which he has dedicated his life. “That page has two buttons, one says share (share) and another says to donate. You can donate a dollar, five, 10, whatever you want. Any money that you can donate to me, however little it may seem, will help me to go further,” Menéndez said, specifying: “And if you can’t donate, with the other button (share) they can send the content to different people so that more people can see it. I would like this fundraiser to reach as many people as possible to see if they can help me”.

This would translate to money to travel and get more resources to train. “It is very, very hard to know the full story behind a competition. The athlete must do many things just to get to that competition, for example, reach the stipulated weight, pay for the flight ticket, pay for the hotel, pay for all the food on those days. Sometimes they do a test that the athlete also needs to pay for. We are competing, it is a very tough sport, but at the end of the day we need money to keep traveling; to keep looking for that opportunity to go far and get to go to the Olympics, to make a world team, and to do that, I need to travel to many different events, championships and competitions to get there and accumulate points to move up the world list.

“Judo takes a very strong effort and discipline that many people may not have. My discipline has helped me get ahead in judo. Not every day was a star because judo is a very, very hard sport, it demands a lot of time, sacrifices. Honestly, not every day I get up and say that I want to do judo because there were many days when, when I was younger, I was tired, not in the mood to do it because it requires a lot of effort, but now that I am older and a little more mature, I thank you to God and to my dad, because those days when I didn’t want to do anything, I didn’t want to do judo, were the days when he pushed me, got me out of bed and gave me the strength to continue, to go to training, and now I understand why he did it, I really recognize that this was something very positive for me”, he explained. He also confessed that even though the relationship with his father is usually “a little difficult because having a coach and a father at the same time is complicated “He is extremely grateful for the discipline that has been transmitted to him.

“There are things that you can only tell your coach and others that you can only tell your dad, that is then sometimes difficult to understand and explain. For example, when we are traveling we are tight for money and it is not the same as if it were just my coach. Sometimes it gets difficult because they are things that you want to tell your coach but you know you can’t tell your dad because he’s going to take it a little differently,” he shared.

Both the support of his father and the sport have forged the character of Menéndez. “One of the reasons why I like judo so much is because it’s not that easy to go far. So it is humbling for the athlete, it teaches you how to be a better person, not only for yourself, but also for the people around you. It shapes you to lead a good life, thanks to many factors: discipline, respect, love, positivity. I am willing to transmit all these values ​​to the community to generate a positive impact,” said the young man, who says he maintains the same emotion since I was little when entering the tatami.

“It is always a very happy moment. Every time I step onto the mat I feel like a child again. Now as an adult, I feel a great responsibility to reach my biggest goals and at the same time I have a responsibility to teach, to give back to the community of which I am a part”.