Kimberly García: the candidate we don’t deserve

Since the end of July, when she was crowned world champion twice, Kimberly García was the guest of honor at the Palace, she was decorated in more than one municipality, journalists began to write to her frequently, she climbed from 6,000 followers to 34,000 on Instagram , and the children began to tell him “I want to be like you”.

In the midst of that roller coaster, in which from one day to the next she began to exist for people who did not know her (and neither did she know her sport, race walking), there was no lack of acquaintances who, without consulting her, placed her silhouette next to the candidate on duty, on posters and billboards, in the recent regional and municipal elections.

Fame has those consequences. And she knew it since she realized that everything she did no longer went unnoticed. For better and for worse. That’s why, after the waters calmed down a bit and the celebrities and politicians returned to monopolize the covers, she Kimberly went on a trip with her family and took a sabbatical.

He did what he hadn’t been able to do for a year: get up late and eat whatever he wanted without remorse. From a chocolate cake to a chicken broaster. But since September, her life has returned to normal: dawn with the day, train six times a week in double time, and answer questions from strangers every so often, like this time.

On Wednesday she woke up with her cell phone vibrating: the World Athletics, the FIFA of athletics, had tagged her in a publication on their networks that left her shocked: she had been nominated for Best Female Athlete of the Year, along with a list of nine other legendary athletes from different countries.

To her who, after leaving Tokyo 2020 empty-handed, it crossed her mind to retire from the slopes and hang up her shoes. “I thought about retiring. It was a very tough moment emotionally. I thought I had reached my limit, but my family was there”, tells us. That family that has a message tattooed on his left forearm. That family that, despite her shortcomings, managed so that she could continue with her desire to elevate her country, crossing a goal.

Referents in his sport did not have them. Or at any rate, he was disappointed sooner rather than later. “I admired a group of Russian women who were world champions in my discipline until they tested positive for doping. Since then I have not admired any marcher again “, he admits. Kimberly García has had the complex task of marking the way for those who will come in a sport, such as the race walk that it is still an enigma for the general public and the media. We still know very little about this branch of athletics where you have to walk quickly, moving your hips for more than 30 kilometers.

unpaid coach

The hubbub does not prevent him from raising his claims. to his coach, the Ecuadorian Andrés Chocho, is owed three months of salary And, to top it off, the IPD still hasn’t guaranteed him the budget for his races next year. “I want my coach to be insured. With my nomination he has offers all over the place. I need the IPD to make him a contract.”

This Wednesday, Kimberly will be 29 years old. Let’s have the decency to give her what she justly deserves.

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