It is curious that a bacteria almost cut short the career of Paula Cima (Oviedo, 2004), a Carbayona judoka who won national bronze yesterday in the junior category, in 57 kilos. Cima was on the verge of leaving judo, a sport she began practicing when she was three years old to “imitate my brother,” after being infected on a tatami with a bacteria that kept her bedridden at HUCA for a month during the turbulent times of the pandemic.
He was going to start high school, he wanted to enjoy the summer… The best thing at that time was to “focus on his studies” and take a break from this fighting discipline. Two years later, Ella Cima moved to La Coruña to begin her studies at Cafyd (Physical Activity and Sports Sciences). There she made friends, settled down and decided to look for a gym to “do some sports.” She then found the “Judo Club Arteixo”, a place that made her recover the competition bug. The black belt returned to participate in the different tournaments in Spain and began to once again have a relevant role within the national circuit. Until Saturday, when she decided to try her luck in Madrid, and boy did she have it. The result, a bronze that she achieved after falling in the first round. With a great spirit of recovery, she knew how to overcome adversity to win the other three fights she had that afternoon to bite the metal.
“I started in this sport because I have always liked to compete. First, at the Takeda gym in Oviedo, and then, at Noreña-Berrón,” said the athlete, delighted to live in Galicia, the community she represents. “I resumed judo after a two-year break. I found a perfect club that encouraged me to return to the path of competition. I really like Oviedo, but living alone at my age is great, an advantage. Right now I wouldn’t go back not crazy,” Cima jokes.
An athlete who intends to reach the Europeans and the World Cups, but without extra help it will be difficult for her. “The first thing is to qualify, but to do so I have to travel all over Europe, with the expenses that this entails. It is true that the Galician federation helps us, but even so we have to pay for many things,” laments the Asturian judoka. “In other sports they have physiotherapy services, doctors… We don’t,” she says.
Your next stop is Portugal. There he will fight to get a medal. He is ahead of Italy, France, Malaga and England. If he gets two metals he will qualify for the World Cup. With one, for the European. “It’s my priority. I don’t know if I can make a living with this, that’s why I study. In any case, even if I stopped competing, I would never separate myself from judo,” explains Cima, a judoka who, if it weren’t for her parents, ” who always encouraged me,” I might not have competed again.
2024-03-14 06:05:58
#PAULA #CIMA #bronze #won #bacteria #story #Paula #Cima #Asturian #judoka #champion
