They were the twelve best divers in the world, chosen for their flexibility, power and agility. Among that dozen athletes were two Mexicans, and also the only representatives from Latin America and Ibero-America. Alejandra Orozco and Gabriela Agúndez competed in the grand final of diving from the 10-meter platform: with an eighth and fifth place, respectively, in an Olympic cycle that generated too many headaches due to the budget cuts caused by the war between Ana Guevara’s Conade and the Olympic Committee and World Aquatics. Orozco, after more than two decades of career, has announced her retirement.
Alejandra Orozco (Guadalajara, 27 years old) and Gaby Agúndez (La Paz, 24 years old) arrived at the pool in Paris with a series of difficulties to stay at the top after winning bronze at the Tokyo Olympics. There were problems traveling to the World Swimming Championships, to cover the salary of their coach Iván Bautista, to remain as high-performance athletes. The root problem was the extinction of the Swimming Federation after a series of corruption cases. Its president, Kiril Todorov, was accused by the Mexican authorities of having diverted more than 150 million pesos. Without a federation, someone had to take charge of the future of swimmers and divers. World Aquatics, the governing body in the world, installed a stabilizing committee led by the president of the Mexican Olympic Committee, Mary José Alcalá. That did not please Guevara’s Conade. The former athlete and now official ruled that she could not grant public resources to a foreign entity. So there were no scholarships or salaries for any of the water sportsmen. Orozco and Agúndez considered auctioning off their Olympic medals to keep themselves going. It was not necessary. A series of private sponsors came on the scene to support them.
The Paris Aquatics Centre was filled with chants in favour of Mexico and its two divers. In the face of the perfection of the Chinese Hongchan Quan and Yuxi Chen, the stands were enthusiastic about Orozco and Agúndez, Olympic medallists in synchronised swimming in Tokyo 2020. The final was a fierce competition to take the third place left vacant by China. So the Mexicans fought against North Korea’s Rae Kim Mi and Canada’s Caeli McKay. Agúndez was the one who came closest to that perfection, with daring and confident dives.
Both divers had competed a week earlier in the synchronized final. On that occasion, the Mexicans did not have their best day. A couple of errors by veteran Alejandra Orozco caused them to lose some key points to get into the medal zone. Despite everything, the Mexicans finished in fifth place worldwide, behind the representatives of China, North Korea, Great Britain and Canada.
Ale Orozco’s farewell
After Tuesday’s competition, Alejandra Orozco announced her retirement from diving. Orozco says goodbye to Paris 2024 with her fourth participation in the Olympic Games and with two medals won: in London 2012 and Tokyo 2020. She won her first medal when she was only 15 years old. More than a decade later, she has served as Gaby Agúndez’s mentor on the platform. “It was a day full of emotions. One more Olympic final, it is experienced very differently from what London 2012 was for me, when I was a child and I didn’t realize where I was. Now it was the opposite: I saw, I felt, I enjoyed. I enjoyed myself after 20 years. It is a competition that I will take with me forever. And yes: it is time to hang up my swimsuit,” Orozco told Clarosports after the competition.
The Mexican diving team has been trying to stay in the top five in the world. Osmar Olvera and Juan Manuel Celaya won the silver medal in the synchronized springboard, in a final where the judges were in the eye of the storm after giving harsh ratings to the Mexicans but not to the Chinese. The duo of Kevin Berlin and Randal Willars finished in fourth place in the platform.
Sign up for the free EL PAÍS Mexico newsletter and to WhatsApp channel and receive all the latest news on current events in this country.
