Translator: Antonio Redondo Reviewer: Núria Martínez Sánchez
Life is made up of challenges and opportunities.
Conquer the Olympic podium
It was my goal for more than 20 years.
I fell in love since very little of the sport of sailing.
A wonderful sport, a sport that unites you with nature 100%.
A sport that makes you a perfect strategist
because you depend on variables that are not under your control.
In my family they say that I am a chickpea from a pound
because I do not come from a family of sailors, it’s more,
nobody of us knew how to navigate.
We learned together in the same summer when we met the lake of Valle de Bravo
in the State of Mexico.
And that summer my parents enrolled my sister and me
to a course for children, where they taught sailing,
but never with the eagerness
that we become world-class athletes,
or that we enter the National High Performance.
In your life, it crossed your mind.
But that summer, it changed the course of my life.
And the truth is that I need to confess once and for all that I hated him at first.
I was very afraid to fall into the water because I thought that below me,
forget about sharks, crocodiles and everything that may be there,
I imagined there were all those people who have drowned
and that if I fell into the water, they would pull me off my feet.
(Laughter)
But it was not 2 years later, more or less when I was 9 years old,
that I competed for the first time; and that was the key to this story.
I began to discover that there was a sea of opportunities before me,
because every goal that drew me and arrived had a limit behind
and once I came back, there was a new one to discover.
My history in high performance
begins when I entered my adolescence
and at that moment I had a lot of luck,
because it was the first time in the history of Mexico that they hired
to a national coach.
So I took courage, I introduced myself to that man
and I told him my dreams.
I told him that at some point in my life I was going to be the best in the world
and that he was going to win a medal for Mexico in an Olympic Games.
And without words in the mouth,
He looked me up and down,
He shook his head and said:
“No, you’re too small for this sport.”
A reality that I faced all my Olympic career
because my physiognomy is not adequate
to fight with those great Olympic powers,
where the average height is 1.75 and 70 kilos.
(Laughter)
At that time I weighed 54 kilos and I am a short one of 1.64.
But that comment, instead of giving me down,
Aroused a hunger to prove the opposite.
Because the limits are impossible,
There is always a possibility to explore to get where your dreams are.
So the challenge started:
more weight, then more training,
more physical strength, a very good diet.
And little by little I was gaining the confidence of this coach.
And a little later, a couple of years later, he made history by winning
my first gold medal in the Central American Games
and the Caribbean.
A result that at those 19 years
It opened important doors for the support of sports institutions
and I could keep dreaming big.
But beyond what it meant to get on that podium, I was really excited,
my stomach hurt because the Committee had promised an economic bonus
for all Mexican medalists
and I imagined that they would deliver me as-is
the check that they give to the tennis players when they win a match.
The truth that had nothing to do with that but it was the best bonus of my career.
They integrated me in the project of scholarships for athletes.
And from there I was able to fulfill my goals in the short term.
At that time they also gave you $ 40 per day for your travel expenses
to competitions abroad.
$ 40 a day that you had to manage perfectly well:
to sleep, eat and transport,
so that’s why it was not a coincidence that I had to stay in motels
where my neighbors gave me concert all night.
(Laughter)
And also all the morning.
(Laughter)
Where it was necessary to meditate conscientiously if it was worth it or not to bathe,
because the minute of hot water was worth 10 pesos.
Group with all my friends, rent the cheapest car,
fill it with suitcases, the equipment above the roof
and manage hundreds of kilometers between headquarters and headquarters,
behind the trailers to not spend our gas,
until you have to ask for a ride on a road with everything,
and my sailboat.
But finally, years later, in 2007,
I achieved the dream of my life.
I reached the top of the world ranking.
Suddenly there was no one who was better than me,
competition in which I was competing in that I climbed to the podium
or was there among the best.
He trained with them all the time.
He had arrived that clear moment that indicated he had put
enough eggs to the basket and you just had to go with inertia,
to fulfill my dreams in the following Olympic Games in Beijing.
And I was also just at that moment in which you trained
month after month, month after month, without stopping, that you want more and that you want to polish,
and get to that moment, and eat it, there.
And I wanted with all my desire, with all my being,
that day of rest would come,
that fantastic day where you can sleep a little bit more than necessary
without anyone telling you anything.
And it was dawn on that glorious day, looking at the ceiling, analyzing
that what had happened yesterday had not been a bad dream,
and not a nightmare, was a reality.
I had broken my Achilles tendon.
To be first in the world ranking,
favorite to win a medal at the Beijing Olympics
to spend the next 12 weeks relearning to walk.
Of course there were difficult weeks,
weeks where everything was cloudy in my head.
It was an anger with life, with me, with situations, why me?
Why at that precise moment?
What had he done wrong to deserve such a challenge?
And the phrase that danced in my head was:
How the hell I’m going to do to get ahead!
I returned to Mexico, I entered the National Rehabilitation Center
and there I faced with courage those 12 weeks.
Three months.
And I met incredible people, people like me who were injured,
they did not have arms, they did not have legs, irreparable injuries,
that made me see my life
from a completely different perspective,
that made me value the little advances,
to be patient, to listen to my body,
because with them I experienced moments of agony and joy,
because together we walked on that same stretch
in which we faced our own battles.
But that hard experience taught me the most valuable of my career to this day.
He taught me to value the process,
every training, every competition,
the friends that I made, the teachers that made me grow,
the places I met,
because all of that together was reality
what put the dye to my Olympic dream and not the metal.
And one month after being discharged I participated in the Beijing Olympic Games
and I was three points away from the Olympic final.
And he returned home just
in that moment when you just finished a project
very important in your life,
full of doubts, mixed feelings
and I opened the newspaper to run into a double-sided news story that read:
Tania failed in China.
My cell phone rang nonstop.
The press was looking for me under the rocks.
My sponsors withdrew their contracts.
The CONADE gave me the support of the athletes.
My family, my friends,
They gave me their condolences as if someone had died.
In fact, my Olympic dream had died.
And the phrase that danced in my brain at that moment was:
“My little girl, put the batteries!
Do not you understand that sports can not be lived in Mexico? “
Famous phrase of my father since I was 17 years old,
a phrase that triggered tears, fights, tantrums and others,
because I wanted to be the best in the world, it was my only goal, I did not want to study,
I did not want anything to distract me from that goal.
But I heard it
and I had that university degree under my sleeve,
a title that also cost me sweat and blood
because it took me 8 years to finish it. Because I did semester yes, semester no,
my classmates each semester became more than little guys and I was older.
It made me panic to enter the classroom
thinking that they would confuse me with a teacher.
(Laughter)
The eternal fights with these same teachers because,
like my father,
They thought that you could not live with sports in a country like ours.
So the weeks that followed I started studying,
I decided to learn everything I had not known to avoid that injury
and 6 months later I presented myself before CONADE with a plan.
He had given me one last chance for me and for Mexico.
But a plan that had very clear and very ambitious objectives.
Objectives that I knew would be attractive
so that they could return me to the scholarship project.
And so it was, they readmitted me and a year later I accomplished everything at the bottom of the canyon.
I was again at the top of the world ranking.
I fought with the best.
I returned to be among the best in each world championship.
I won medals again in the Central American, Pan American games,
but the belt was still very tight, I needed to stop being my “todologist”,
I needed a multidisciplinary team, a coach, a nutritionist.
It could not be all and apart to be an athlete and try to win an Olympic medal.
And something great happened to me, my parents do not think so.
(Laughter)
It occurred to me, why not?
break a Guinness record that was at 220 nautical miles.
Approximately 400 and cortito kms.
So I prepared to prepare to sail alone,
in a 4 meter boat, which is my Olympic little vellum,
that goes to flush with the water, that has no cabin to sleep,
that has no place to store water or food.
No stops and no assistance from Los Cabos to Bahía de Banderas.
300 nautical miles was my challenge.
Even though I risked my life,
It was what met those requirements to sign large sponsorships.
So in front of me, in that immense blue desert,
I put to the test what really moved my heart.
There were so many reasons to back out!
GPS, that wonderful gadget that tells you where you are standing,
It stopped working 12 hours after I left Los Cabos.
The moon was clouded and I was in complete darkness.
My water was spoiled because I mixed it with electrolytes and protein,
that went to waste for so many hours below the Sun.
Like Columbus, I had to navigate only with the direction of my compass
and for this reason,
so as not to get out of the course line, I had to reduce my rest hours.
And of course that the doctor had told me before leaving:
“Tania, you are going to face your limits.
Those limits that you have faced before in your life,
physiological and mental limits,
and you are going to push to where you decide, but you must promise me only one thing:
You will give notice when you leave this reality. “
And I knew that any external assistance would invalidate my record,
so quiet, I looked more beautiful.
(Laughter)
And on the way I talked to extraterrestrials, no kidding,
I thought they were hiding in the clouds.
I saw islands and cliffs where I thought I was going to stamp and lose my life.
And according to me, I had not seen much marine life;
but there are photos that showed that I sailed for hours
next to huge marine seals.
65 hours after leaving Los Cabos,
with only 3 hours of cumulative sleep,
on the verge of hypothermia, dehydrated,
with an acidity that pierced my throat,
I set a new Guinness World record.
And with him I signed very important sponsors that allowed me
prepare me those last two years for London 2012.
And a year before the Games,
The committee approved a salary for a coach for me.
And I chose that friend who was the coach, that when I was 17 years old
She told me that it was impossible to be the best in the world.
And together we made history,
we did the best result of the sail date until now,
my best Olympic result to date.
I am absolutely sure
that everything you can create in your mind is possible to carry out in your life.
The limits you decide.
(Applause)
Life is made up of challenges and opportunities.
Conquer the Olympic podium
It was my goal for more than 20 years.
I fell in love since very little of the sport of sailing.
A wonderful sport, a sport that unites you with nature 100%.
A sport that makes you a perfect strategist
because you depend on variables that are not under your control.
In my family they say that I am a chickpea from a pound
because I do not come from a family of sailors, it’s more,
nobody of us knew how to navigate.
We learned together in the same summer when we met the lake of Valle de Bravo
in the State of Mexico.
And that summer my parents enrolled my sister and me
to a course for children, where they taught sailing,
but never with the eagerness
that we become world-class athletes,
or that we enter the National High Performance.
In your life, it crossed your mind.
But that summer, it changed the course of my life.
And the truth is that I need to confess once and for all that I hated him at first.
I was very afraid to fall into the water because I thought that below me,
forget about sharks, crocodiles and everything that may be there,
I imagined there were all those people who have drowned
and that if I fell into the water, they would pull me off my feet.
(Laughter)
But it was not 2 years later, more or less when I was 9 years old,
that I competed for the first time; and that was the key to this story.
I began to discover that there was a sea of opportunities before me,
because every goal that drew me and arrived had a limit behind
and once I came back, there was a new one to discover.
My history in high performance
begins when I entered my adolescence
and at that moment I had a lot of luck,
because it was the first time in the history of Mexico that they hired
to a national coach.
So I took courage, I introduced myself to that man
and I told him my dreams.
I told him that at some point in my life I was going to be the best in the world
and that he was going to win a medal for Mexico in an Olympic Games.
And without words in the mouth,
He looked me up and down,
He shook his head and said:
“No, you’re too small for this sport.”
A reality that I faced all my Olympic career
because my physiognomy is not adequate
to fight with those great Olympic powers,
where the average height is 1.75 and 70 kilos.
(Laughter)
At that time I weighed 54 kilos and I am a short one of 1.64.
But that comment, instead of giving me down,
Aroused a hunger to prove the opposite.
Because the limits are impossible,
There is always a possibility to explore to get where your dreams are.
So the challenge started:
more weight, then more training,
more physical strength, a very good diet.
And little by little I was gaining the confidence of this coach.
And a little later, a couple of years later, he made history by winning
my first gold medal in the Central American Games
and the Caribbean.
A result that at those 19 years
It opened important doors for the support of sports institutions
and I could keep dreaming big.
But beyond what it meant to get on that podium, I was really excited,
my stomach hurt because the Committee had promised an economic bonus
for all Mexican medalists
and I imagined that they would deliver me as-is
the check that they give to the tennis players when they win a match.
The truth that had nothing to do with that but it was the best bonus of my career.
They integrated me in the project of scholarships for athletes.
And from there I was able to fulfill my goals in the short term.
At that time they also gave you $ 40 per day for your travel expenses
to competitions abroad.
$ 40 a day that you had to manage perfectly well:
to sleep, eat and transport,
so that’s why it was not a coincidence that I had to stay in motels
where my neighbors gave me concert all night.
(Laughter)
And also all the morning.
(Laughter)
Where it was necessary to meditate conscientiously if it was worth it or not to bathe,
because the minute of hot water was worth 10 pesos.
Group with all my friends, rent the cheapest car,
fill it with suitcases, the equipment above the roof
and manage hundreds of kilometers between headquarters and headquarters,
behind the trailers to not spend our gas,
until you have to ask for a ride on a road with everything,
and my sailboat.
But finally, years later, in 2007,
I achieved the dream of my life.
I reached the top of the world ranking.
Suddenly there was no one who was better than me,
competition in which I was competing in that I climbed to the podium
or was there among the best.
He trained with them all the time.
He had arrived that clear moment that indicated he had put
enough eggs to the basket and you just had to go with inertia,
to fulfill my dreams in the following Olympic Games in Beijing.
And I was also just at that moment in which you trained
month after month, month after month, without stopping, that you want more and that you want to polish,
and get to that moment, and eat it, there.
And I wanted with all my desire, with all my being,
that day of rest would come,
that fantastic day where you can sleep a little bit more than necessary
without anyone telling you anything.
And it was dawn on that glorious day, looking at the ceiling, analyzing
that what had happened yesterday had not been a bad dream,
and not a nightmare, was a reality.
I had broken my Achilles tendon.
To be first in the world ranking,
favorite to win a medal at the Beijing Olympics
to spend the next 12 weeks relearning to walk.
Of course there were difficult weeks,
weeks where everything was cloudy in my head.
It was an anger with life, with me, with situations, why me?
Why at that precise moment?
What had he done wrong to deserve such a challenge?
And the phrase that danced in my head was:
How the hell I’m going to do to get ahead!
I returned to Mexico, I entered the National Rehabilitation Center
and there I faced with courage those 12 weeks.
Three months.
And I met incredible people, people like me who were injured,
they did not have arms, they did not have legs, irreparable injuries,
that made me see my life
from a completely different perspective,
that made me value the little advances,
to be patient, to listen to my body,
because with them I experienced moments of agony and joy,
because together we walked on that same stretch
in which we faced our own battles.
But that hard experience taught me the most valuable of my career to this day.
He taught me to value the process,
every training, every competition,
the friends that I made, the teachers that made me grow,
the places I met,
because all of that together was reality
what put the dye to my Olympic dream and not the metal.
And one month after being discharged I participated in the Beijing Olympic Games
and I was three points away from the Olympic final.
And he returned home just
in that moment when you just finished a project
very important in your life,
full of doubts, mixed feelings
and I opened the newspaper to run into a double-sided news story that read:
Tania failed in China.
My cell phone rang nonstop.
The press was looking for me under the rocks.
My sponsors withdrew their contracts.
The CONADE gave me the support of the athletes.
My family, my friends,
They gave me their condolences as if someone had died.
In fact, my Olympic dream had died.
And the phrase that danced in my brain at that moment was:
“My little girl, put the batteries!
Do not you understand that sports can not be lived in Mexico? “
Famous phrase of my father since I was 17 years old,
a phrase that triggered tears, fights, tantrums and others,
because I wanted to be the best in the world, it was my only goal, I did not want to study,
I did not want anything to distract me from that goal.
But I heard it
and I had that university degree under my sleeve,
a title that also cost me sweat and blood
because it took me 8 years to finish it. Because I did semester yes, semester no,
my classmates each semester became more than little guys and I was older.
It made me panic to enter the classroom
thinking that they would confuse me with a teacher.
(Laughter)
The eternal fights with these same teachers because,
like my father,
They thought that you could not live with sports in a country like ours.
So the weeks that followed I started studying,
I decided to learn everything I had not known to avoid that injury
and 6 months later I presented myself before CONADE with a plan.
He had given me one last chance for me and for Mexico.
But a plan that had very clear and very ambitious objectives.
Objectives that I knew would be attractive
so that they could return me to the scholarship project.
And so it was, they readmitted me and a year later I accomplished everything at the bottom of the canyon.
I was again at the top of the world ranking.
I fought with the best.
I returned to be among the best in each world championship.
I won medals again in the Central American, Pan American games,
but the belt was still very tight, I needed to stop being my “todologist”,
I needed a multidisciplinary team, a coach, a nutritionist.
It could not be all and apart to be an athlete and try to win an Olympic medal.
And something great happened to me, my parents do not think so.
(Laughter)
It occurred to me, why not?
break a Guinness record that was at 220 nautical miles.
Approximately 400 and cortito kms.
So I prepared to prepare to sail alone,
in a 4 meter boat, which is my Olympic little vellum,
that goes to flush with the water, that has no cabin to sleep,
that has no place to store water or food.
No stops and no assistance from Los Cabos to Bahía de Banderas.
300 nautical miles was my challenge.
Even though I risked my life,
It was what met those requirements to sign large sponsorships.
So in front of me, in that immense blue desert,
I put to the test what really moved my heart.
There were so many reasons to back out!
GPS, that wonderful gadget that tells you where you are standing,
It stopped working 12 hours after I left Los Cabos.
The moon was clouded and I was in complete darkness.
My water was spoiled because I mixed it with electrolytes and protein,
that went to waste for so many hours below the Sun.
Like Columbus, I had to navigate only with the direction of my compass
and for this reason,
so as not to get out of the course line, I had to reduce my rest hours.
And of course that the doctor had told me before leaving:
“Tania, you are going to face your limits.
Those limits that you have faced before in your life,
physiological and mental limits,
and you are going to push to where you decide, but you must promise me only one thing:
You will give notice when you leave this reality. “
And I knew that any external assistance would invalidate my record,
so quiet, I looked more beautiful.
(Laughter)
And on the way I talked to extraterrestrials, no kidding,
I thought they were hiding in the clouds.
I saw islands and cliffs where I thought I was going to stamp and lose my life.
And according to me, I had not seen much marine life;
but there are photos that showed that I sailed for hours
next to huge marine seals.
65 hours after leaving Los Cabos,
with only 3 hours of cumulative sleep,
on the verge of hypothermia, dehydrated,
with an acidity that pierced my throat,
I set a new Guinness World record.
And with him I signed very important sponsors that allowed me
prepare me those last two years for London 2012.
And a year before the Games,
The committee approved a salary for a coach for me.
And I chose that friend who was the coach, that when I was 17 years old
She told me that it was impossible to be the best in the world.
And together we made history,
we did the best result of the sail date until now,
my best Olympic result to date.
I am absolutely sure
that everything you can create in your mind is possible to carry out in your life.
The limits you decide.
(Applause)
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