Ana Peleteiro: “Being an athlete and mother is very difficult, but being a worker and mother, too”

The paths to perfection follow labyrinths that moralists, so elevated, so blind, do not see, Ana Peleteiro was always told: not that way, Ana. They continue to tell her that now.

When she appeared in an Almodóvar movie.

When she announced that she was pregnant.

When, horrified, they discovered that during her pregnancy, the athlete had become an

influencer

, a queen of the networks with more than 400,000 followers on Instagram.

Either athlete or

celebrity

, they warned.

“Athlete and

celebrity

,” she responded.

“And also mother.

And stronger than ever.

“Every person has their own path.”

“I earn more money with social networks than with athletics, that is a reality, and what I don't want is for that to end when I stop winning medals,” she says as soon as she returned to high competition, and Lúa, her daughter, It's been 14 months now.

“And, of course, I want to continue winning medals for many more years.”

With a jump of 14.32 meters, she has already become Spanish champion again and has qualified for the Glasgow Indoor World Championships in March, and in June the European Championships in Rome await her and in August, the Paris Games. .

He reaches everything despite everyone.

That's where you're going wrong, they told her at the age of 16 when, recently proclaimed junior world triple jump champion (and she already reached 14.17 meters), Ana Peleteiro exhibited, along with her wonderful athletic quality, her talent, a character and a personality strong ones that broke.

Conflicts were inevitable.

Athletics, her life, became overwhelming.

Not even the world understood her, always trying to find herself, nor did she understand the world.

In June 2013, Peleteiro finished high school and left Galicia and Abelardo Moure, her longtime coach, to train in Madrid with Juan Carlos Álvarez;

She left Madrid in April 2016 to go to Lisbon with João Ganço, who in her training group also guided Nelson Évora, Olympic champion in Beijing 2008;

Six months later she decided to return to Spain, to a villa in Guadalajara, where she has gone to live.

In almost five years she had not jumped as far as she did at 16 years old.

She had not yet turned 21 and Peleteiro was already working with the fourth coach of her career, Iván Pedroso.

It's going to be bad for him, those who felt wise, those who were always wrong, puritanically predicted.

Peleteiro, a Galician from Ribeira, claimed her African blood;

Her association with her coach's Cuban gene, the false relaxation that Pedroso promotes, was the best complement to her.

“More than anything, I had known her for many years before starting to work with her,” Pedroso remembers when almost seven years have passed of a joint work so fruitful that it led Peleteiro, who has turned 28, to be one of the best athletes in the world, Olympic medalist and owner of a brand, 14.87 meters, already top level.

“I knew what he was like, I knew what her character was like... and since he came I already knew how to work with her.

When there are injuries, discomfort, conflicts, you should never get stressed and think that the world is going to end there, and want to fix the problems in one day.

There are problems that are fixed in a day and others that are fixed in a month, but always face them calmly, relaxed, so things flow better.

Ana joined the group of athletes I train, including Yulimar Rojas, the best jumper in history, and little by little she has entered into that dynamic of wanting more, wanting more, and that is what interests me, more than everything.”

The human organism is wise, and hormones even more so.

Mothers are stronger than any other women.

Athletes who leave motherhood come back stronger.

“It is like this with Ana that, in addition, she has regained her strong point, which is speed.

She is faster than ever.

She is more focused and more motivated.

Lúa makes her stronger,” says Pedroso, who has rarely said to her that you are going wrong, Ana. “Each person plans their life as they think best.

With Ana we talk about everything, we discuss it in advance.

Ana knows that she has to sacrifice some things.

She knows that she must have time to rest and that a daughter is a bonus to more work.

Trust between coach and athlete is the key to her results.

Now I understand her better than when we started, when she had to make me more serious, and she listens to me.

And she is more mature.

It is a difficult decision for athletes.

The woman is the one who gives birth, the one who has to breastfeed… but the girl is already running, she is almost talking… The most difficult part of parenting has already passed.”

Ana Peleteiro, last summer, in a photo shoot for SModa.

“The first six months after giving birth, I laughed at the idea that mothers are stronger and said that I didn't know who had invented that lie, but now I do notice that in certain aspects I am stronger.

And I don't know if it's because I've given birth or because I'm also trying harder than before.

When I go to the track I focus all my energy on training and before it was more dispersed.

Motherhood has given me a lot of focus.

Maybe I'm stronger for having been a mother or maybe because I train harder and try harder than before,” explains the athlete.

“I get a lot less angry.

When something doesn't go the way I want, I ignore it, I say, damn, if I have a wonderful job, I'm very lucky to be able to dedicate myself to what I like the most, but it's not what I live off of nor does that stop me from At home I have my family waiting for me with a smile.

If being a high-level athlete does not allow you to create your family, have a bond and a healthy circle, everything ends in frustration.

I live without frustration.

“Having a family around that makes me happy helps me de-emphasize athletics.”

Peleteiro has learned to understand the world.

The world has no choice but to understand her.

“The person who returns is a completely different person, because motherhood changes you in every aspect for better or worse.

After 14 months since I gave birth, I have already managed to stabilize myself both emotionally and physically,” she explains.

“It has been like starting from scratch, because my birth was by cesarean section and it was a complicated birth.

When they told me I had to have a cesarean section, I saw everything a little black, because I feared that the recovery was going to be much slower, but I didn't have any setbacks.

What I always said happened, if they give me health and a baby that sleeps well, I know I will return.

I know that I will be the same as before.”

Neither moralistic nor moralizing, Peleteiro flees easy temptation in his networks.

“I don't seek to be an example of anything.

I share my reality, I share my daily life, and if there are people who identify with my life, which I think is quite natural and normal, then great.

Social networks are a space where people are inspired in a very positive way but also in a very negative way.

Being an athlete and being a mother is very difficult, yes, but it is also very difficult to be a worker in a normal job and be a mother, and that happens to all women.

Motherhood is complicated, work-life balance is very difficult,” says the athlete, who, as a member of Team Spain, has the help of the Higher Sports Council to hire a babysitter while she and her husband, also triple jumper Benjamin Compaoré, , they train and compete.

“There are many sporting women who perhaps do not dare to be mothers due to their economic situation, because they could not afford to have a caregiver at home and pay them a thousand euros a month to take care of their children.”

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