[News] Angélica Espinoza, the shy Peruvian medalist who gave us the golden smile at the Paralympic Games

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Every blow that Angélica Espinoza hits is a challenge to life itself. The national parataekwondista has given us the first medal in the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games and it was the gold one. She has fulfilled the dreams of an entire country, which sees what it is to win a medal after 21 years. It is also the fourth gold medal in national history (out of nine in total).

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As introverted as he is, his smile reveals his joy. “It has been very calm,” the members of the National Paralympic Association tell us from Tokyo, is that Angelica arrived at the Games as the leader of the world ranking, although she was pre-classified as number 4 because a previous ranking was taken as a reference.

Angelica was born without a part of her left arm, but she was never limited at all. The whole of Peru met her with the gold medal at the Lima 2019 Pan American Games, just two years after she started in this sport. After leaving para-swimming, she leaned into parataekwondo. With trainings between six to eight hours, she knew how to become the best.

In her first year of competition, she achieved fourth place in the World Cup in Turkey, that year she was the revelation Para athlete of the National Paralympic Association of Peru. She then she came the titles, the gold in Lima 2019, the qualification to Tokyo in the Pre-Olympic of Costa Rica, in March 2020.

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The pandemic postponed everything and after virtual training, she was able to return to training at La Videna thanks to the support of the National Paralympic Association, Legado 2019 and IPD. This year, the national para-athlete won the gold medal in the Para Pan American Taekwondo 2021 (Mexico) last June and days later she was consecrated in the Asian Para Taekwondo Championships, with which she went on to lead the world ranking.

She belongs to the K44 category, which describes people who have lost part of their arm, and in Tokyo she started the competition in the quarterfinals thanks to her pre-qualification. In that round she beat India's Aruna 84-21, the highest score in the division. In the semifinals she beat Ziyodakhon Isakova (UZB) 17-7 to enter the fight for gold, where she beat Meryem Cavdar of Turkey by a resounding 34-21.

The Peruvian team arrived at the facilities of the National Stadium to carry out the training session on the eve of the commitment against Uruguay for the Qualifiers. See how the day of the ‘Blanquirroja’ was prior to this important meeting.
The moods
She arrived with all the preparation on top and it showed in her confidence in Tokyo. Within her closed character, she achieved all the spirit that she carried for the competition.

During one of the pauses in the fight - which was not broadcast on TV or YouTube - the music sounded loud in the Makuhari Messe, and the Peruvian delegation that came to encourage Angélica, began to dance on the platform.

Angélica, very psyched in her fight, managed to see that and let out a laugh at what her fellow delegation members were doing, as Patrick Espejo, a member of the Paralympic national delegation, tells us. The national joy motivated her more and she managed to close her bouts with victories.

The high level that Angelica already had has been perfected in recent months. In Lima, she had the opportunity to train with conventional taekwondo players, which allowed her to greatly improve her fighting technique.

Her training, double shift many times, was improved by the diet that was implemented by the Taekwondo Federation. She said goodbye to bread and chicken to the breaststroke to go from 36 to 46 kilos, with a body fat percentage of just 9.2%, according to the Lima 2019 Legacy.

Training at La Videna, headquarters of Legado Lima 2019, was very helpful for her and the presence of both young and old athletes gave her more touch. “The idea was to train with people who can demand me. The idea was to go out, so the best option was to train at La Videna ”, she told her as an athlete.

Peru thus adds her ninth Paralympic medal, the fourth gold. It joins those achieved by José González Mugaburu (bronze in Toronto 1976 para-swimming), Teresa Chiappo (bronze in Toronto 1976 para-athletics and gold in Toronto 1976 table tennis) and those of Jimmy Eulert in para-swimming (gold in Atlanta 1996, gold and silver in Sydney 2000 and two bronzes in Athens 2004).

 

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