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Ecuador breaks its sports glass ceiling with three Olympic medals

2021-08-03T23:55:06.741Z


Two golds and one silver in Tokyo mark the best result for a country that only climbed to the top of the podium once 25 years ago


Neisi Dajomes, last Sunday before winning the gold medal LUIS ACOSTA / AFP

Until now, the Olympic chapter of Ecuador had a unique protagonist. The marcher Jefferson Pérez was 25 years ago the first Ecuadorian to get on the podium and win a gold at the 1996 Atlanta Games. The athlete and the Latin American country did not get excited again until 12 years later, when they finished with a silver in Beijing 2008 Those two medals were recorded in the national sports history as a punctual and almost unrepeatable milestone. Until the Tokyo 2020 event. Ecuador has smashed its own glass ceiling with two golds and one silver in cycling and weightlifting that already make its people think that sporting success is not condemned to mere anecdote.

Richard Carapaz, 2019 Giro d'Italia champion and third in this year's Tour de France, dusted off the Olympic medal table last week with first gold in Japan.

It was the bet with the most possibilities of the Ecuadorian Olympic team.

The surprise came days later in women's weightlifting.

Two young women took the podium on Sunday and Monday and flooded Ecuadorians with enthusiasm by becoming the first two female Olympic medalists in the country.

Neisi Dajomes, 23, the daughter of Colombian refugees, won the gold with her 263 kilos lifted in two batches in the 76 kilogram category and without failing any attempt.

The ecstasy with which the country woke up on Sunday was reissued on Monday thanks to Tamara Salazar in the same specialty, but in the 87-kilo category.

Lifting 263 kilos also earned him the silver metal and launched the country to position 27 in the medal table, ahead of Spain, and only surpassed in South America by Brazil. Similar to two drops of water, Dajomes and Salazar also share a history of overcoming. Both, 23-year-old Afro-Ecuadorians, had been accumulating championship titles in recent years that heralded their outstanding Olympic participation. For Dajomes they are the second Olympics and for Salazar, the first. But the two have dealt with difficulties getting to the Games in shape. The pandemic wiped out the competition schedule and Salazar looked far from his best before Tokyo. I only trained at home. Dajomes gave a false positive for covid-19 that delayed and almost stopped his departure from the pre-Olympic concentration camp where he was in Spain.He dedicated his gold to his brother and mentor, who passed away in 2018, and to his mother, who died in 2019.

More information

  • Jefferson Pérez's broken shoe

  • Check the medal table

The two golds and the silver are already the best result of the Ecuadorian sport and have awakened a flood of optimism in an audience not used to international victories.

There is still the trump card of Glenda Morejón, a very young 21-year-old marcher who is a firm candidate for the podium after breaking the U-20 world record in 20 kilometers marches and winning the U-18 world title in 2017 when she was 17 and traveled to Kenya without family or coach.

He won and crossed the finish line with no one to receive it.

He trained, according to his parents at the time, with patched shoes and regained strength with water with panela.

After that victory, he entered Ecuador's High Performance plan and this Friday he competes in his first Games.

Morejón is part, like Dajomes, Carapaz and Salazar, of a batch of athletes that has been emerging and winning titles since those Olympics in Rio de Janeiro 2016 to which Ecuador sent 38 athletes in 12 categories.

They returned without medals but with the feeling of having stayed at the gates of the podium.

48 representatives from 15 disciplines have attended Tokyo and the medal table shows today that they were not wrong.

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Source: elparis

All sports articles on 2021-08-03

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