Athlete and coach Nemia Coca met Héctor Garibay for the first time at the Oruro Stadium. He jogged tirelessly to pursue his dream of becoming a football player, and she realized she had discovered a future sports star. She approached him, congratulated him on his 50 laps, told him he could make it to the half marathon, invited him to join her club, provided him with free training, and explained that it wouldn’t be easy, but she would manage the resources to get started. project. Great game. He accepted, started winning races and continued to be successful, dividing his time between training and becoming a taxi driver.
According to the hands of the clock: Héctor Garibay and Nemia Coca; marcher Mela Quispe; Jocelyn Camargo; Angela Castro.
Source: Digital Compass
Anahi Casas
“Hector loved football but he was injured. He jogged as a way to recover. I saw him running and I invited him to my club Pie de Viento and told him he would train for free. I asked him Explaining that first we will participate in municipal and departmental competitions, and if he performs well, we will go to international competitions. I told him: ‘If you are willing, I will lend you money at the beginning, and I will Buy a ticket. He said ‘yes’,” coach Coca told Brújula Digital.
Recounting how he discovered recent Mexican marathon champion Gary Baie, Coca recalled his beginnings, remembering the time he ran to win a pair of shoes and the countless door-knocks seeking support and representing him at international competitions. for Motherland. Now as a coach, Coca assures that nothing has changed, explaining that due to a lack of resources, many Bolivian athletes are forced to split their time between training and work.
Such is the case with the award-winning athletes Coca has produced in recent years. He explained that he took steps with the help of the Oruro government and developed a plan to provide food, hotel expenses and national and international tickets to athletes preparing for the competition. “They managed to win medals,” he stressed, but explained that despite their success and the help they received, they had to take on other jobs, such as peeling potatoes, driving taxis and working as waiters, to cover personal expenses. “They’ll work extra hard, attend two training sessions and then go to work after a break,” he explained.
For example, Garibay, a native of Oruro, supports his living expenses by working as a taxi driver because the support and sponsorship he receives is not enough to sustain a “day-to-day” life or pay the bills. After winning the Mexico City Marathon on Sunday, August 27, he revealed that he owns a car in Bolivia and works as a taxi driver, but also stressed that he is now 100% committed to athletics. He also said that he participated in the Mexico Marathon to make “money” to help him prepare for the 2024 Paris Olympics. Specifically, he received a bonus of US$30,000 after winning the race, and another US$30,000 after breaking the record.
According to Coca, another athlete working hard to achieve her dream is pacer Meira Kellen Quispe. “She worked as a waitress in a nursing home and as a minibus driver,” he explained.
Athlete David Ninavia, who is currently applying for a scholarship from California Baptist University, recalled working as a taxi driver in the evenings after days of grueling training. “I went out to work as a taxi driver in Laragua and also helped my parents who lived in the countryside. He had the chance to get a scholarship but he left,” he told this outlet.
Ninavia assured that her brother plans to compete in the Pan American Games in October. He recalled that David received little support from Bolivian authorities. Now, as he explains, the family wants him to finish his career in the United States as well.
Mario Flores is another Oruro athlete who has achieved national and international success, but struggles to continue his physical training and pay his personal expenses. “He peeled potatoes, worked as a loader, worked as a cook, he did everything. He was a good athlete, but he did everything because he didn’t have enough money,” Coca said.
In order to obtain resources, many athletes participate in national and international competitions and win awards. That’s what Garibay did in the Mexico Marathon.
Abroad, elite athletes compete in international competitions accompanied by a team of professionals such as physiotherapists and psychologists. “They have a doctor, a coach and a prop man to move their stuff, and they have a representative to go to meetings and make arrangements. When I go to international competitions with my athletes, I fulfill all of that function,” Koca said. He even prepares food to save resources.
Most of the time, due to lack of resources, elite athletes travel to international competitions alone. Like Garibay in Mexico, long-distance runner Jhoselyn Camargo from La Paz is alone in Colombia. Despite the odds, the young woman won the Medellin Half Marathon on Sunday, September 3.
In addition to training, most athletes and coaches in Bolivia do the job of managers, going door to door to obtain resources that will guarantee their travel and travel expenses to international competitions. For example, in May 2022, Camargo was supposed to represent his country at the Ibero-American Games in Alicante (Spain), but he had no money to buy a ticket and learned that he would not receive government support. She didn’t give up, and to raise funds, she raffled off her sneakers and national track and field team jersey on social media. The auction made headlines in the media, and days later the deputy sports minister reversed his position and funded the trip.
In order to train at home, many athletes have to deal with a range of difficulties, from not having the money to buy competition shoes, to running on the road without the necessary equipment and risking their integrity.
For example, Camargo looked for replacements and chose to buy half-used shoes. “I’ve been a loyal customer of 16 de Julio (Expo) semi-used tennis shoes for many years, and as with many athletes, you don’t always get what you want, but that’s enough financially,” he said. “Bolivia” It’s very difficult to be an elite athlete.
Access to health professionals is also complicated. According to Coach Coca, when one of her athletes gets injured, she goes to Oruro Stadium, waits for the San Jose club’s doctors and physical therapists, and asks them for help. “I told them: I have my athlete, he is injured, he has qualified for the Bolivarian Games, can you help me see him? Can you treat him for free?” he said.
Work as a teacher or temporary job
From the beginning, Jocelyn Camargo divided her time between studies, training and work. His efforts are worth it. In addition to excelling in sports, he was trained in accounting and psychology. At school, she collected plastic bottles to raise resources, then she worked as a nanny and ran a grocery store. Currently, he teaches physical education to children in the afternoons.
The long-distance runner, who won a bronze medal at the 2018 South American Games and a gold medal at the 2021 South American Grand Prix in Paraguay, guarantees that she will receive a support scholarship from the Toncas Program (3,000 bolivianos per month) and a significant Helps, but doesn’t go far enough to cover everything an elite athlete needs to train.
“While we participate in the Toncas program, they offer us a financial amount of 3,000 bolivianos for six months and the second half of the year. For those athletes who are at a more elite level, who are more competitive, we spend a monthly 4,000 to 5,000 bolivianos, which is the minimum. Clothes, tickets, food and preparation are a big investment,” Camargo explained to Brújula Digital.
La Paz pacer Angela Castro has an excellent track record of dividing her time between training for elite competition and occasional work.
He said that in 2019 he participated in the Tonkas program and then became part of the Olympic scholarship, which is offered to those who have already participated in the Olympics and plan to travel to Paris (France) for the next edition.
“It’s almost the same amount as (the Tonka people) make because from there we have to give to the coach and obviously it’s not enough. They owe me money since last August and haven’t given it to me for a year and I have to continue Training, it’s difficult because it costs a lot of money financially. Then you go find a job or find a way to make money,” Castro explained to Brújula Digital.
Faced with this situation, the Marchers did their best to continue training and took temporary jobs to support expenses. An elite athlete needs resources to cover everything from coaching fees to physiotherapy, which is why it is estimated that to prepare for international competition, an athlete needs at least 10,000 bolivianos per month.
“They ask us for results, they dream of Olympic medals, they dream of world medals, but no one supports (getting) those medals,” Castro lamented, recalling that they were told multiple times that if they didn’t have them grades, their scholarship would be revoked, and she asked herself: “How could I have grades without such support?”
In 2023, the Tonkas program awarded financial scholarships to 20 selected athletes in various disciplines. Each athlete will receive support of Bs. 3,000 per month for six months. This year, the program is implemented exclusively by the Ministry of Health and Sports and Bolivian Air Bolivian Airlines (BOA), posing new challenges to the program, a press release said.
Hector Garibay had just been included in the Toncas program a few weeks earlier, after winning a marathon in Mexico and revealing he had received no support from the authorities. This newspaper interviewed Cielo Veizaga, Deputy Minister of Sports, to learn about the characteristics of the scholarship and how the beneficiaries are selected, but as of press time, she has not yet received a response.
Castro, who has been training for 15 years, promises that despite all the obstacles and lack of resources, she will not give up and is always ready to compete in more competitions. Camargo does the same.
This race for dreams has also joined the ranks of the athletes under the charge of coach Coca. Coca used his own experience to make a request to the authorities: invest in Bolivian athletes and at least give them a basic salary so that they can devote all their time to training. “Can you imagine how many gold medals Bolivia will have?” he asked.
BD/AC