Alexa Moreno, a gymnast against the canons: "I am a very powerful person"

Gymnast Alexa Moreno during the gymnastics world championships in Stuttgart, Germany, in 2019.Matthias Schrader / AP

Alexa Moreno (Mexicali, 26 years old) was a brilliant grasshopper in Rio de Janeiro.

The Mexican gymnast lived the idyll of competing in her first Olympic Games in 2016. Wearing an emerald green suit, she was suspended in the air to perform fine pirouettes to measure herself against the best in the world.

As Moreno competed, a wave of comments on social media began to criticize her for her appearance and complexion.

The harshness with which he was judged put Mexico in front of the mirror of its machismo.

“My name became known a lot, it was a

shock

.

At first it was difficult to get so much attention.

There is no bad publicity ”, he tells EL PAÍS.

That episode of harassment was pure fuel for Alexa Moreno.

The Mexican avoided the comments and the controversy that arose around her.

She didn't want to be known only as the athlete who was the target of insults.

Talking about it, he admits, he's fed up.

So he got down to business, training hard.

"The level of violence she received could represent an emotional blow that could lead her to retirement and she turned it into a strength," Ana Guevara told this newspaper at the beginning of 2020, the great Mexican athletics champion and head of the National Commission for Physical Culture and Sports (Conade).

Guevara, like Moreno, received vituperation for his physique only for not being within the supposed canons of beauty.

At the end of 2018 Alexa Moreno shook the world: she won the bronze medal at the Gymnastics World Cup.

Moreno took the same podium as Simone Biles, the unstoppable gymnast from the United States.

“Knowing that the coaches and gymnasts you compete against congratulate you with all their hearts was what filled me the most.

I achieved something that left me very satisfied with my work, ”she says.

After its success came the commercial announcements, sponsorships, awards, one of them the 2019 National Sports Award.

- Athletes should talk about the empowerment of women?

- I never think of things the way I have to.

Seeing that my goals inspire other people is very rewarding.

Within sports I can open a door and say: Mexico has gymnastics, don't ignore us.

And say to the girls who come to gymnastics: give it a try!

Moreno was educated and grew up to the beat of gymnastics.

Her parents involved her in sports when she was only three years old.

Mexico, before Alexa, did not have a long tradition.

“Until I went to a World Cup, I was more aware of gymnasts around the world.

The first I remember is Andreea Raducan, it was the first image I had of a great gymnast and it was wow!

And then it was Carly Patterson in 2004 ”, recalls the Mexican who began to compete on a world scale in 2010. In recent years she has remained among the best 10 gymnasts in the world.

“I am a very powerful person.

My muscles are quite strong and my strength is my traps, ”he explains.

In the past five years, Moreno has put his shyness behind him.

He still does not get hooked on social networks and is shielded in his world with two training sessions a day and, in addition, he is studying architecture.

His escape is doramas (drama series from South Korea) and anime.

Moreno's career has been under the guidance of Spaniard Alfredo Hueto.

“We share the same vision: a pretty high goal.

He is a person who pays a lot of attention to details and looks for that bit of perfection ”, the gymnast mentions.

It has a guaranteed place in the Tokyo Olympics where, if the pandemic allows it, it seeks a personal triumph.

“I want to enjoy my Games like never before.

I want to finish my competition happy and satisfied, to say that I gave my soul for what I did ”, he adds.

In the last 20 years, women have raised their faces for the sport of Mexico.

There have been 16 Olympic medals that the Mexicans have won in different competitions over the 12 that men have won.

In the last Pan American Games, of the 37 golds, 18 were for women.

“There are many women who are in the way of fighting for what we want.

It is an image that is needed a lot in this country ”, says an Alexa Moreno eager to show her physical power to the world again.

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