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Limonar, Cuba, 1967. Olympic champion and record holder in high jump since 1988. This week he bequeathed some memories to the collection of the Sports Museum that is exhibited in Madrid (Moda Shopping) until Sunday

How have these years been for you? I can't say bad.

I've had all the time busy with things that I like.

That is already feeling good. Q.- Have you had any pain from the sport?

Any ailment, a chronic injury? I have a herniated disc that breaks out from time to time.

And I have some pain when I look for it.

When I try to do something that I shouldn't do.

If I take a jump without warming up, a fast race ... And how does it go from nostalgia?

Do you remember the competition like the one who sometimes remembers a friend from school or like the one who thinks every day about a father who has died? The first years he remembered it every day.

During the first year of retirement I went to the track every day to run, but I didn't set foot in the jump zone, I couldn't.

Now, nostalgia takes me by surprise.

Sometimes in the stadium, sometimes watching a broadcast, sometimes if I come across images of myself ... If I watch a broadcast with people, I get along well, I play strong.

But if I see you alone, sometimes, I ... Does a tear leak? Sometimes it happens. When you competed, were you a poor athlete?

I mean: did you have the same team, eat the same food, travel under the same conditions as your rivals?

I don't know 100%.

I don't know how they traveled or what they ate.

My gear, shoes and all that, it was worse at first and then it got better.

Adidas started taking care of me, they made me custom shoes.

They might not be the best but they were enough to compete. How much would have jumped with the media and technology of 2021? I estimate that two centimeters more.

2.47, maybe 2.48. Your years of success coincided with the Special Period in Cuba, right? Just those years. But I imagine that you were isolated in a privileged bubble. I suffered it as all Cubans suffer.

The current also went out in my house.

It took me a long time to have a car and when I did, I had nowhere to fill it with fuel.

My only privilege was that I could travel and take things to Cuba.

The other day I saw a documentary about Luka Doncic.

They said that from a very young age he had had a girlfriend and that this helped him not to be distracted.

Did you have a partner in your prime years?

I, like all Cubans, had a girlfriend very early.

With 12 years we are already in those things.

I can't tell you if that helped me in the race.

I can tell you that having a partner helps me to have this youthful appearance today. What did you like the most, jumping or competing?

To compete.

I'd rather win with a bad jump than finish second with a good one.

And it happened to me, I won the Olympics jumping 2.34, with a bad record, and I loved it.

I didn't apologize to anyone for that. And over the years, do you have a theory why he earned so much? He had natural talent, I worked hard. Sure his rivals did too. Maybe he had a little more natural talent.

And there are other factors.

I met jumpers there in Cuba who trained as much as I did but then didn't have, I don't know what it was, the serenity of competition.

The last question

The high jump, deep down, does it consist of doing things perfectly or is there room for ingenuity?

Creativity matters at the beginning, when you discover your way of jumping.

In competition, there is no longer any margin.

You have to jump perfect.

For this reason, fatigue is, in addition to physical, mental.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

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