The coach of the Mexican rhythmic gymnastics team, Blajaith Aguilar, describes the year 2023 as a “roller coaster.” She and the young gymnasts between the ages of 16 and 22 hit rock bottom on October 7 in Israel, the day Hamas decided to attack Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip. They were concentrated in Tel Aviv, where they were preparing for the Pan American Games in Santiago de Chile. There, a month after the start of the armed conflict, they obtained the historic pass to the Paris Olympic Games, in what will be Mexico’s first participation in this modality.
The road to reach the Olympic mat has been difficult since the Mexican rhythmic gymnastics team was created in 2005. The appointments in Beijing, London and Rio de Janeiro were impossible. In 2016, Aguilar left contemporary dance in Switzerland and decided to accept the offer to take charge of the team. The first fruits of the work were seen in 2018, when Mexico was Central American champion. The sights were set on Tokyo 2020, but despite being among the 10 best teams in the world, the door was closed. Of the five gymnasts from that Olympic cycle, only the current captain remained, the Yucatecan Adirem Tejeda, 22 years old. And Dalia Alcocer (Yucatán, 20 years old), Kimberly Salazar (Veracruz, 20 years old) and Sofía Flores (Coahuila, 19 years old) joined the team.
In 2023, Yucatecan Julia Gutiérrez, just 16 years old, was the latest addition. And what she had to live through was far from the life of a normal teenager. On October 7, the guns and bombs began to ring out while the team was concentrated in Israel preparing for the Pan American Games. “Now we see it and we grew a lot as a team. We learned to value life and the things that really matter,” the coach explained two months ago.
After spending time in bunkers and security areas, the gymnasts returned three days after the attack together with hundreds of Mexicans on one of the planes that the Mexican government took to Israel to repatriate their compatriots. Upon their return, the spotlight was on the young gymnasts who had lived through that horrible experience. “For better or worse, this sad story in which we were trapped served to make people know a little more about our sport,” explains Aguilar.
Israel’s return, just 20 days before the Pan American Games, was an open wound. At stake was Mexico’s first qualification for the rhythmic gymnastics events at the Olympic Games. And the girls, who had only recently hit rock bottom, achieved it. Silver in the All Around-modality in which performances are scored with four of the five rhythmic apparatus: hoops, ribbons, ropes, clubs or balls-Santiago de Chile, second only to the Brazilian team – which had already qualified for the Olympics through another route – served to compete in Paris against the other 14 qualified teams.
The success is due to the work of the girls, who are no older than 22. Despite their youth, their daily routine is very different from that of any other person their age. They get up at the National Center for the Development of Sports Talents and High Performance (CNAR) before seven to change and have breakfast to go to ballet training, which begins at about 7:40 a.m., explains Salazar. They finish dancing at nine and then go to the velodrome in Mexico City to improve their gymnastics for four hours. In the afternoon they will train for another four and a half hours. At night there will only be a little time left for dinner and studying. “I think that being away from my family is what has cost me the most, it is a decision that you make to pursue your dreams,” explained Gutiérrez, the 16-year-old from Yucatan, in an interview with this newspaper.
The effort will serve to ensure that this Friday the world sees Mexico’s first rhythmic performance in the Olympics. Aguilar speaks openly about what they will do at the AccorHotels Arena in Paris-Bercy. To the rhythm of Stayin Alive,by the Bee Gees,The first routine will be with hoops, in which they will represent the Olympic symbol. “This is the first time we are in the Olympic Games and we are invited to the biggest party in the world,” the coach announced. “We are predicted to be ranked 10th to 14th (in the rankings). Doing a great job is the main objective,” Aguilar predicts. Although the coach never rules out making it to the final after finishing in the top eight: “Maybe in rhythmic gymnastics we are a bit of a jerk. We don’t give ourselves the value that we really have as Mexicans.”
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