Tokorozawa (Japan) (AFP)

Boxer Arisa Tsubata juggles two types of gloves. Those she wears in the ring to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics and those of her work as a nurse at the hospital, where she rubs shoulders with an opponent of a different kind: the coronavirus.

The 27-year-old mainly cares for cancer patients, but points out that Covid-19 was a constant threat in her hospital during the height of the pandemic in Japan this spring, when the country's health system was on the brink of collapse. rupture.

"In a medical establishment, we are always faced with the risk of infection," she reminded AFP. "My colleagues and I have worked with the stress of possibly being infected" with the new coronavirus.

Like most top athletes around the world, the pandemic has changed his sports training. But the postponement of the Tokyo Olympics until the summer of 2021 worked in his favor.

“It's an advantage for me because it gives me more time to train,” she explains. While admitting to having found it difficult to fully rejoice, the postponement having been caused by the spread of the terrible coronavirus.

Arisa Tsubata only started boxing two years ago and has made tremendous progress. In October 2019, she became the Japanese champion in the middleweight category, which earned her a place in the national team.

But combining his nascent sports career with his job as a nurse is not easy. She only fought her first international fight during an intensive training camp in Kazakhstan earlier this year.

"It made me realize how inexperienced I was (...). It scared me," she confesses.

Also the Japanese boxing federation had decided not to make it participate in the last Olympic qualifying tournament which was initially to be held in May in Paris, which would have shattered his dream of participating in the Tokyo Olympics.

The postponement of the Games to the summer of 2021 gave him an unexpected reprieve. "I want to train a lot more and convince the federation that I can participate in the final qualifying tournament," she said.

- "Return to combat" -

His initial motivation by getting into boxing was more trivial: to lose weight.

"A few years after becoming a nurse, I had gained more than ten kilos" she confides, laughing.

"I was planning to go on vacation to Hawaii with my friends one summer, but I figured that with a body like that I wasn't going to have a lot of fun. That's how I started the boxing".

According to her trainer, Masataka Kuroki, Arisa Tsubata is a subtle boxer who learns quickly, with an innate sense of attack.

But "she still needs to acquire more technique in defense. Her lower abdomen must become more agile and firmer to repel blows from below," said Kuroki, interviewed by AFP.

Born to a Japanese father and a Tahitian mother, Arisa was raised only by her father, along with three of her siblings, after their parents separated.

Her father had encouraged Arisa to become a nurse, never having imagined before that she would one day fight to compete in the Olympics. Today he proudly collects articles about his eldest daughter in the media.

Arisa Tsubata says she wants to participate in the Olympics for all her colleagues at the hospital who replace her during her training, and for the patients who encourage her to achieve her Olympic dream.

"I want to be the type to keep going back into battle no matter how many hits I take," she says.

"I want to show those who support me that I can work hard and participate in the Olympics, thanks to them".

© 2020 AFP