HAVANA, Cuba.- There was a time when the debate centered on whether his name was Osleydis or Olisdeilys, in the purest style of tropical Byzantinism. In the end, what did a few more or less letters matter when referring to the best javelinist on the planet? It was enough to say “The Cuban” or “Menéndez” for the opponents to understand who they were talking about…
Where accuracy—total accuracy—was required was in its marks. For example, she was two mere centimeters short of breaking the universal record during the 2004 Athens Olympics. Although everything is said, there was no regret then: after all, the record already belonged to her.
He had achieved it three years earlier in Rethymno, another Greek city, one night when his dart flew 71.54 meters. Never had a Cuban woman been able to be owner and mistress in the record books. Still dissatisfied, she took advantage of the 2005 Helsinki World Cup to add 16 centimeters to the top.
“The Cuban” or “Menéndez” had the perfect somatotype for the specialty. A muscular brunette, she gave the power of 80 kilograms of explosives to an implement that was thrown towards an uncertain, but always distant, destination. In some stadiums her screams still seem to echo when she releases the javelin, and I continue to evoke with emotion her gesture of raising those gym biceps to clarify “yes, I already won, I am number one.”
Too bad it was a flower of a few years. Injuries took their toll on his legs and human misery diminished his enthusiasm until one day he opted to say goodbye to training. “I didn’t feel good about things that happened,” he confessed in a television program. “I left quite distraught, to the point of not wanting to know anything about the sport.”
I don’t know the magnitude of the shortcomings he would go through later, but they must have been enormous when in 2010 he auctioned his Olympic medal on the eBay page. I remember that when the news spread, some moralists of immorality wondered if it would be legal to translate the reward of a life of personal sacrifice into dollars. Perogrullo answered them right away: eating is a priority.
Happy to die with the blindfold covering their eyes, the Inder ideologues had ignored a summer queen with two world golds and two world records. “When you retire, you keep the glory at home,” said Osleydis-Olisdeilys. “They didn’t give me any value and I felt discriminated against.”
Mental paralysis had swallowed one of the most brilliant athletes in national history. A woman with merits to emulate with Driulis, Ana Fidelia, Mireya, Idalys, Regla Torres… A star who at the turn of time, more desperate than a champion, undertook a dangerous journey that took her to cross the Rio Grande.
“When I set foot on North American soil I knew that my dream was starting to happen,” he said. “Getting here is like throwing 75 meters, a goal that I set for myself and couldn’t achieve. But I have 75 meters of my will, my joy, my decision to win, to help my family and to be a person who can materialize their dreams.”
Right now, it doesn’t take much imagination to see her showing off those invincible biceps. “Yes, I already won”…
OPINION ARTICLE
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2024-04-08 00:48:32
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