Gymnastics is one of the disciplines that has stood out the most in the department both nationally and internationally, for the Risaraldense League it is a constant challenge to be able to train high quality athletes despite the difficult situation due to the pandemic. For this reason, athletes and coaches have managed to coexist despite a situation as complex as the one currently experienced and they try to see it as an opportunity to get something positive. For William Cano, executive director of the Risaralda Gymnastics League, it has been quite a feat to assume his role since the quarantine began in March, “in mandatory isolation, the Risaralda Gymnastics League made the decision to turn this crisis into a great opportunity and taking advantage of the fact that we still had time to carry out transfers of athletes, we began a process of negotiation, detection and identification of sports talents and that is why today for the next National Sports Games, we have five athletes in the Colombian selection of trampoline gymnastics, four in rhythmic gymnastics and four in artistic gymnastics for women, which again increased the number of athletes that Risaralda has ”.
Despite the situation, the league has continued with the incorporation of new fundamental pieces to achieve great results in this discipline, using different training methodologies that seek to motivate more athletes to practice gymnastics. “The Colombian gymnastics team is made up of very small groups, and having an athlete in each modality representing Risaralda is something quite positive for us, we managed to negotiate and carry out a process of approaching a gymnast in the trampoline modality, Laura Sofía Suárez, who comes from the Bogotá League, is a gold medalist in the National Games, we also carried out a negotiation with 11 rhythmic gymnasts and 10 female artistic gymnasts, that means that we have managed to improve and perfect our sports process, these gymnasts arrived from the Bogotá League, 2 athletes from the Boyacá League, 1 athlete from the Norte de Santander League and 1 athlete from the Quindío League ”, Cano assured.
It is clear that in a discipline such as gymnastics a lot of perseverance is required, attending training sessions and gaining experience in the different competitions that are held at the national and international level. “Among the athletes who come with this strong process, we bring girls who are training in Spain, something quite positive for us due to the technical level that this country has, as in the case of Evelyn Carrasco, we have girls training in Bulgaria like Adriana Sofía Zuleta who trains rhythmic gymnastics and signed with us, this is something that will greatly enrich the sporting process, which will give us quite positive guidelines regarding the projection of medals that we will have in the next National Games ” , the director pointed out.
Without a qualified coaching staff, great results could not be achieved, so the Risaraldense Gymnastics League worked hard to hire qualified coaches of national and international stature to train its athletes, to which William Cano explained, ” We brought a strong new coaching staff to complement our three departmental coaches, which are Daniela Díaz in rhythmic gymnastics, Juan Carlos Agudelo in artistic gymnastics and Yan Mauricio Carvajal in trampoline gymnastics, with great national and international sports results, on the other hand, they arrived to accompany the process the graduate and international judge, Juan Manuel Hernández Romero, in female artistic gymnastics accompanied by the lawyer Adriana Carolina Rodríguez, also the teacher Nora González Cuesta. So we enrich both the number of athletes and the number of coaches ”.
Yan Mauricio Carvajal (Trampoline gymnastics), Daniela Díaz (Rhythmic gymnastics), Juan Carlos Agudelo (Women’s artistic gymnastics)
An opportunity
During the time in which both athletes and coaches have been isolated, activities have been carried out so that the progress that until before the pandemic had been obtained both physically and in technical training processes is not lost, to which the Professor William focused on the possibility of providing a positive face to all this event “We tried to make this crisis become an opportunity to identify the needs of these athletes and something very gratifying was that they all wanted to come to Risaralda to represent us , to support us and enrich our training schools, our youth categories, our grassroots work with a view to the 2023 Eje Cafetero National Games. We were the first league in the department and in Colombia to open and that is nothing more than the management that It was carried out with the biosafety protocols, the implementation of them, the request for their approval and last year they ended. you with a good number of athletes.
A very positive balance was achieved after the reintegration of 300 athletes and the realization of events such as the virtual school intercollegiate games, which have increasingly motivated other athletes to join this league, they also managed to carry out the rigorous sports check-ups and the development of virtual classes. We did not have vacations in the month of December with our preselections and selections working in an intense way, in order to recover time, to recover the physical form of the athletes. For this first quarter of the year the competitions have been suspended in the international and national calendar but a series of virtual check-ups have been implemented since our sport is quite aesthetic, it is of art and precision ”, Cano expresses.
After resuming the training schools as of January 15, it was possible to have a massive participation which has helped these schools to gradually recover, but not everything always smiles at Risaralda’s gymnastics, unfortunately during the time of the pandemic There was a loss of talents, who left the country, or had economic difficulties, “we are trying to support the most talented athletes with transportation, lunches, the work we have is not easy, we have insufficient resources but the only option we have is to keep going, accompanying our athletes in the best way, supporting the athletes who have stayed, who want to participate ”.
Undoubtedly, one of the ways in which the gymnastics community is benefited is that we reactivate the virtual classes, which have been implemented as of February 1 through the virtual education program Ciber Colegio, where athletes can fulfill their role as students and gymnast at the same time in the same venue, an example is the athlete with a scholarship at the University of the Andean Area in sports training Jennifer Camila Rivera Celis, who has been part of the league and is a youth Olympic gymnast and who today is already It is in the senior category and which is preparing for the National Games.
Difficulties
Not everything has been rosy for the league, so it has been making different efforts to maintain the proper functioning in almost all its processes, “we have multiple difficulties because our income was reduced, the companies that contributed and made donations to us unfortunately did not They can do it because of the economic and financial situation that companies are going through in Colombia, we understand that but we have to continue doing innovation processes, modernization processes, administrative processes, efficiency, investment-expenses, fixed-cost supplies and the most important, trying to retain our group of collaborators and athletes, this has been thanks to the Mayor’s Office of Pereira and the Departmental Secretariat of Sports, and we hope to continue doing so with the support of parents in training schools, which are the greater sponsors of them ”, pointed out the executive director.
For now, the league continues with its work and although several events were canceled for this beginning of the year, “we hope to continue fulfilling the department and the city of Pereira with great sporting results in this year 2021, taking advantage of the fact that the vaccination process is about to begin. and we hope that they will include high-performance athletes within that great vaccination program, they need to start mobilizing throughout the country and internationally to attend their concentrations, firings, physical preparations and friendly competitions and they need to be vaccinated in the shortest possible time ”, concluded William Cano.