No, Ana Peleteiro is not back. No, the Ana Peleteiro who, with a jump of 14.75 meters, has just won the bronze medal at the World Indoor Championships, is not the same as the one who two years ago briefly said goodbye to athletics to become a mother.
The gold medal went to the Caribbean Thea Lafond, from the small island of Dominica, a former British colony between Guadeloupe and Martinique, who at the age of 29 achieved the best mark of her life and, with 15.01m, entered the small club of athletes over 15 meters (30 with her in history on a list led by the unattainable 15.74m of the Venezuelan Yulimar Rojas). She gets them on her second jump, the last one she made. Once the victory was sealed, she watched Peleteiro’s fight from the stands. Second was the young Cuban Leyanis Pérez, 22 years old (14.90m), immense legs and great favorite.
Peleteiro’s 14.75m is the second best mark of his life. They earned him his sixth triple jump medal in major international championships.
It is the first medal for Spanish athletics in an indoor World Cup in an Olympic year marked by the serious injury of the pentathlete María Vicente, favorite in her event, and the invalid start in the 60m hurdles of Asier Martínez, also a medal candidate.
She is no longer simply Ana Peleteiro, but Ana Peleteiro-Compaoré, since she has added, after the hyphen, the last name of Benjamin, her husband and father of her Lúa, to her official name. A symbol and a proclamation. She is no longer the young girl who five years ago, on March 3, at the age of just turned 23, on the same ugly and soulless outdoor track in cold Glasgow, jumped 14.73m, breaking the Spanish record for the first time and She was proclaimed European indoor champion. Before she had already won bronze in the World Cup indoor 2018, his first major competition under the guidance of Cuban coach Iván Pedroso, and also bronze in the outdoor European Championships in Berlin. Then they would get the Olympic bronze in Tokyo with a new national record (14.87m) on the great Sunday shared with her training partner Yulimar Rojas, and the silver in the European indoor track in Torun 21.
“She is the same and she is not the same,” says Pedroso, who hugs her, holds her close and cries with her, happy, intense. “She is the same and stronger, faster, more mature, less impulsive.”
Peleteiro maintains rage and desire, ambition, a character so competitive that it makes him multiply himself in great opportunities. He has added a calm that shakes but does not break, the background music the Rock the Casbah of the Clash that plays when, after a scream that breaks the air and makes all attention focus on her, she hits her chest and thighs with her palm, and begins to devour the hallway, 16 steps before putting her foot down. right on the board and propel yourself in the hop, step and jump of your triple. She was the fifth best jump in a very high and regular series, with jumps of 14.67m and 14.64m before, the best level of her career.
“Maybe I’m stronger for having been a mother or maybe because I train harder and try harder than before,” the athlete explained a couple of weeks before the World Cup, and reflected on the fact that she feels like an athlete, yes, but his income comes mainly from his work as influencer on networks, half a million followers on TikTok, more than 400,000 on Instagram, 10,000 euros per advertising post. “I get a lot less angry. When something doesn’t go the way I want, I downplay it. I mean, damn, if I have a wonderful job, I’m very lucky to be able to dedicate myself to what I like most, athletics, but it’s not even what I make a living, nor does that take away from the fact that when I get home I have my family waiting for me with a smile. If being a high-level athlete does not allow you to create your family, have a bond and a healthy circle, everything ends in frustration. I live without frustration. Having a family around that makes me happy helps me de-emphasize athletics.”
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