The Games with less doping, always allegedly, appear on the horizon of Lydia Valentín (Ponferrada, 1985), which collected two of its three Olympic medals, the 2008 Beijing silver and the London 2012 gold, time after competing, without the atmosphere and glamor of a unique setting. It will never be the same. In Rio, finally, the bronze was hung where it wanted, already without the contest of Russia, but together with representatives of other countries under suspicion that they will not be in Tokyo, where their participation has been drastically reduced. The context increases, in theory, the possibilities of this expert weightlifter, although the competition may appear in the least expected place, as the Colombian Leidy Solís showed in the last World Cup.
The routine of Lydia on the way to Tokyo will not change with respect to other seasons, perhaps only to define the points of form, since while the weightlifting World Cups are usually between October and December, the 2020 Games will be played at Horse between July and August. In January is when the weightlifters begin their scheduled preparation cycles based on the competitions of the year. Due to the growing media dimension of Lydia, the Spanish has taken advantage of this end of 2019 to devote a part of the time to advertising commitments with the aim of fully focusing on its preparation for the Olympic year from January. At 34, he does not say that Tokyo is going to be his last participation. In a sport in which, once in the elite, practically only strength is trained, there is time ahead.
Before the Games, Lydia will face the European in April. Paradoxically, it will be held in Moscow, against Russian rivals who will not be able to take part in the Games due to the exclusion of this country during the next four years of all world competitions, but not continental. A fudge that can only be understood for economic reasons. The same will happen in 2020 with the European Football Championship, which has Russia among its participants and St. Petersburg as one of its venues. The European was awarded to Moscow before the sanction, but when there was already evidence in the irregularities of Russian controls. In fact, the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) was the first to request the expulsion of Russia from its sport at the Rio Games. Subsequently, the IAAF, athletics.
In Tokyo, not only Russian halteras will be absent, but also many others, because the massive cases of doping led the IWF to sanction recidivist countries with more restricted participation quotas in the Games. Four countries (Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Belarus and Armenia) may only take one man and one woman for all specialties. Another 12 (Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Moldova, Egypt, Turkey, India, Iran, Albania, Malaysia and Thailand), two men and two women. This means that, depending on the tests chosen by their national federations, Lydia, which will compete in -76 kilos, will not have rivals from many of the great powers of weightlifting. For now, the Leonese occupies the eighteenth position in the provisional Olympic classification, after the first two periods to achieve it, but it is an irrelevant place, since the most important phase ends on April 30, after the European. The top eight in the world rankings are in place.
Until then it will be difficult to evaluate the options of a lifter who achieved international leadership after Rio, with the world titles achieved in 2017 and 2018. This year, however, she went down a step in the competition in favor of the Colombian Solís, but the The experience and competitive strength of the Spanish make it a favorite in Tokyo, waiting to know its exact point in the coming months. In the Games, the pressure increases, and not only on stage, but because the chances of a medal are reduced to a single test, the Olympic Total.
La haltera leonesa is one of the exponents of the jump of women's sport in Spain, especially consolidated in the Olympic field in the last two editions of the Games, together with Mireia Belmonte , Ruth Beitia , Ona Carbonell and Carolina Marín or the handball teams and basketball. In parallel, Lydia has developed other personal projects, related to fashion and advertising, which have made it a reference in Spanish society. It is true that Beitia also competed with high jumpers that later lost what was achieved as a result of sanctions, but none had to fight against doping mills as Lydia did.
"In this sport if you go with chemicals, you are invincible," he said in this newspaper. Tokyo should be the cleanest scenario for your sport, but we speak only of a presumption. From now on, Lydia must stop thinking about the uncontrollable to focus on the tangible: the preparation of gold.
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