The judoka and doctor Paula Pareto was in our city. In the morning, he gave an extensive talk in the auditorium of the National University of Villa María in front of nearly 400 people and in the afternoon he gave a class to a hundred judokas of different ages and ranks, in the Sports Hall, which was followed by about 200 people from the stands.
In an activity promoted by the Sports and Tourism Entity of our city, the symbol and legend of Argentine judo, Paula Belén Pareto, held a talk under the title “Values, leadership, adaptation to change and experiences”. It was moderated, which lasted for almost an hour, by the sports journalist from El Diario, Gustavo Ferradans.
In a living room set up on stage, the world and Olympic judo champion reviewed her beginnings, the most important moments of her career and the preparation for the competitions. He also recalled his most emblematic struggles and even gave himself room to get emotional on two occasions: first, when he remembered the reception given to the delegation’s athletes when he got his two Olympic medals, or the day of his retirement, and second, when he remembered the professor and judo referee Sergio Tignani, who recently passed away: “I called him uncle, because I had known him since I was a girl and we shared several trips to different competitions with the Argentine national team.”
“When I won the first medal and the same thing in my last game, when I was eliminated, I didn’t expect the entire Argentine delegation to make a hallway and wait for me. Can you imagine?, there were those who are my idols, the athletes that I admire, like those in basketball, those in hockey. And they were waiting for me. The same thing happened when it was my last fight in Tokyo. I didn’t even expect it, ”she recounted visibly moved, to which the audience responded with a round of applause.
La Peque, who is the only Argentine athlete in an individual sport to have won a Gold and a Bronze medal in the Olympic Games, also highlighted the importance of the “Double Career” Law, which gives greater facilities to athletes who can to continue in the high competition, at the same time as to continue a university career.
Paula recounted: “I simultaneously competed at a high level and studied at the National University of Buenos Aires. At the end of November I was already organizing my year, the subjects I could study based on the tournaments I had. I had to stay free in a subject due to an administrative error, which cost me a year of study, but along with that I qualified to go to the Olympic Games in Beijing, where I got the Bronze medal.
“There were even people who told me that I could go wrong in both things if I didn’t choose one at a time. I understand that it was not for bad vibes, but to help me. But I was still able to graduate in 2014. Today I work at the San Isidro Hospital, ”she said.
Regarding his current situation, he commented: “I joined the ENARD DAR Program (High Performance Development Program) and I teach young promises of my sport”
“The judoguis that I used in many competitions that I won medals I still use. Those of us who do amateur sports do not have the luck of the soccer players of some teams, who wear one shirt per game, ”he recounted in another passage of his talk.
Regarding the high competition, he commented that “there is no recipe to be an elite athlete. One has to prepare constantly and all the time. I have come across athletes who prepared very intensely the last month before a tournament, but they were doing poorly. You have to train all the time and sustain it over time. The best recipe is to train wanting to be better than yesterday and better tomorrow than I can do today. The intention is to set short-term goals and train for the day to day”.
Before a heterogeneous audience, where there were Physical Education students and teachers, athletes from other disciplines and the general public, La Peque recalled that “when I couldn’t find the course of a fight, my coach told me to get angry, because I fought better if she was angry.”
“That happened to me in the Rio 2016 Olympic final. My rival was dominating the fight and at one point he hit me unintentionally, but he cut my lip. It was not intentionally, but then I got angry, I said to myself ‘What am I doing, this is not the fight that I can do’. I went out and ended up winning the medal.”
Then came the time for the gifts from the mayor Martín Gill and the rector of the UNVM, Luis Negretti, and also a hundred souvenir selfies that everyone who came took them. Everyone wanted to take a photo with La Peque, who is a giant of Argentine sports, as a souvenir.
2023-08-27 17:15:55
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