Hernan Sartori
07/23/2021 1:17 PM
Clarín.com
sports
Updated 07/23/2021 1:17 PM
Thursday, July 8, 2021.
One more day in the final stretch of Paula Pareto's preparation for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. One more day? Heh
Laura Martinel
discovers on her phone a WhatsApp audio of Álvaro Rosset, deputy chief of mission of the national delegation in the Japanese capital.
“The International Olympic Committee wants Paula to carry the Olympic flag at the opening ceremony,”
listens to the champion's coach in Rio de Janeiro 2016. Listen again. Listen again. And listen again. Whatééééé?
Friday, July 23, 2021.
Santiago Lange and Cecilia Carranza Saroli have already paraded with the Argentine flag and a band that was a feeling and could not stop behind.
The best moment of the ceremony passed: the live representation of the pictograms.
Applause for the idea and for the executors.
But the best could be done.
The announcers announce that the Olympic flag will enter, carried by an athlete from each continent, who was on the front line in the fight against the pandemic.
And Paula Pareto appears.
The highest honor for a life of effort, passion and love for judo and medicine.
The highest honor for Paula Pareto.
Photo: AP
How were those
two weeks of waiting
until you knew if the IOC idea was going to materialize?
How many twists and turns were there (spoiler alert: many)?
How did they manage to sew their mouths so that everything was a surprise?
There is the
intimate story
of the glorious recognition of the synthesis of what it is to be an Olympic athlete.
The first Argentine athlete of any gender to carry the flag of the five rings at the opening of the Games.
Pareto, Martinel, the sparring partner Camila Marcellet and the kinesiologist María José Domínguez had arrived in Japan on July 2 and after the sanitary procedures at the airport, they left for Sakai, the city that housed them as an acclimatization and training center.
A group of Japanese judokas was waiting for
them to hold out
and train as a team.
Hard, as Paula always does.
The call
Pareto along with six other athletes carries the Olympic flag.
Photo: EFE
Everything was going smoothly ... until the WhatsApp audio came from the COA.
-Pau, the IOC wants you to carry the Olympic flag at the opening ceremony.
-No, if I compete the next day, as always.
Logical reaction of an athlete who always resigned to be considered as the flag-bearer of the delegation, precisely because of that “little” detail: she goes out to the tatami the next day.
As happened when she won the gold medal in Rio, she climbed on Martinel and she told her what was obvious as she was the first Argentine Olympic champion:
“You are a legend!
You are a legend! "
.
But the first moment of doubt arrived.
Inevitable.
-What do I do?
Laura wept with emotion.
It was a statue.
He noted the unique character of such an honor.
-I don't know what to do, Lau. Decide it yourself.
Cecilia Carranza Saroli and Santiago Lange were the standard bearers for Argentina.
Pareto was the Olympic standard bearer.
Photo: AP
Martinel knew that Paula's weigh-in was going to begin on Friday the 23rd at 20. At the exact moment the ceremony would start.
Impossible, he thought.
But nothing is impossible...
"The
coach
", as Paula calls her, understood the pride of the election of
La Peque
, not only because she was an Olympic champion but because the bearers of each continent would be athletes who for different reasons were on the front line or helping in the battle against the Covid-19.
And Dr. Pareto, at the end of her specialization in Traumatology, not only treated pandemic patients at the San Isidro Hospital but also operated.
“Putting intramedullary nails is already a common thing.
The interesting thing is that under the supervision of my bosses I can perform interventions such as joining tendons or severed nerves in limbs.
They supervise, but one day I'm going to have to do it alone, heh ”, he had explained to
Clarín
in an interview in November 2020.
“You
feel the beads of sweat fall down your back.
Think that there is no air conditioning due to the Covid and the equipment is total in the operating room -he had related-.
Have you ever worn an N95 chinstrap?
You don't know what tightens.
We also use a triple layer chinstrap, goggles, mask and an extra shirt than usual.
The skin does not breathe anywhere.
I sweat more in the operating room than in training.
Forget".
The secret plot
High in the sky.
The Olympic flag next to the flag of Japan, the host country.
Photo: AP
The operation "Let's do everything possible so that Paula is at the ceremony" began.
The email exchange was long and long.
Through the COA, the International Judo Federation (IJF) was asked if they could change Paula's weigh-in time "because she was going to have a role in the opening ceremony."
Of course, they could tell absolutely nothing.
Nothing at all.
As the original idea had been from the IOC and the IJF understood the importance, it agreed.
What was the proposal?
For Paula to weigh herself three hours before the competition.
The door opened, but ... no.
Athletes need to respect their rituals.
In each competition, Pareto is weighed the day before.
And everything had to be in its place.
So they analyzed it as a team and the answer was overwhelming: “It is not fair that in his last competition the schedule is upset.
And how to advance the weigh-in is to gain a sports advantage, that's it.
Thank you, but it can't be
”.
The two Pareto.
The doctor and the Olympic legend.
But the idea did not fall because all parties understood and the IOC persisted with their original idea.
Then they told Laura and Paula that they assigned a special transport to him so that he could arrive on time and fulfill his full schedule.
Ready the chicken.
Now,
silenzio stampa
.
Let no one find out.
And so it was that slowly and by the stones, already installed in the Olympic Village in full reunion with those colleagues whom she sees at CeNARD, Paula left this Thursday the 22nd without notifying the general rehearsal of the ceremony. Clothes were tried on and details were fine-tuned. Nothing could be left to chance.
His inner circle only found out the day before.
This time yes or yes you should see the opening, heh. There were plenty of reasons.
This Friday everything scheduled was fulfilled: the weighing of the 48 kilos category, a companion assigned by the IOC to take her to the Olympic Stadium, a change of clothes and, when it was not yet midnight in Tokyo, the entry of the flag of the five rings with Paula Pareto as one of the six bearers.
Along with her walked Kento Momota (Asia - Japan - badminton), Mehdi Essadiq (Africa - Morocco - triathlon), Elena Galiabovitch (Oceania - Australia - shooting), Cyrille Fagat Tchatchet II (Refugees - weightlifting) and Paola Ogechi Egonu (Europe - Italy - volleyball).
You are a legend, Paula. You are legend.
One by one, all the Argentine athletes that will be in Tokyo 2020
From men's soccer and basketball to Delfina Pignatiello, Paula Pareto and the Lange-Carranza duo, all the details of the Argentine delegation that will begin its participation this Thursday with the debut of Fernando Batista's team.
HS
