Analuz Pellitero has discovered that water is her world and, while she dreams of Paris 2024, she continues to win medals

“I’ve been swimming my whole life. As far back as I can remember, I remember being in a pool.” That’s how it started Analuz Pellitero his speech with Clarion. The pampas has grown in the water and feels comfortable in that area. There, the visual disability with which she was born – the bilateral microcornea – does not limit her and she moves in total freedom. Maybe that’s why those early childhood experiences of floating and kicking for the joy of it quickly turned into lessons and competitions in Pico football team. And then, in the challenging training in CENARDO. AND Anita She became, almost without realizing it, a high-performance swimmer who had an unforgettable 2023.

This year she stood on a world podium for the first time when she came third in the 100m backstroke – her favorite event – at the ecumenical event in Manchester. She was the Argentine who played the national anthem several times in the Parapan American Games in Santiago, Chile, where he achieved a brilliant performance with three gold, two silver and one bronze; her and had the pleasure of carrying the white and blue flag at the closing ceremony. And she established herself as the best Paralympic athlete in the country: she received the award Silver Olympia in that category -, a feat that was not even dreamed of in those early years in the swimming pools of General Pico’s hometown.

“It happened little by little, but at the same time it all happened very quickly. And I think, in the meantime, I didn’t realize what I was getting at. When I was little I didn’t say “I’ll become a swimmer, I’ll dedicate myself to that”. That’s why it seems to me that everything happened almost involuntarily, “she recalled.

And the passion for competition bit her when she was very little. At the age of eight she began training with her club’s promotional team. Then he began competing in provincial tournaments and in 2010, at the age of 13, he was baptized in Evita games. He initially competed in swimming and track and field, but eventually hung up his shoes to concentrate fully on aquatic sports.

“I never really trained in athletics. I did it mainly for school competitions and for Evita, in which at the time athletes with disabilities could compete in two sports. But then I realized that swimming was what I liked really, because in the water I feel very comfortable. Even though I have a vision problem, I can move in the pool without any kind of discomfort,” said the 26-year-old swimmer.

Likewise, his disability does not represent a great limitation for Pellitero in his daily life. And she’s very clear about why.

“When I was born, the doctors told my mum and dad that I couldn’t see at all. But today I manage to manage myself well thanks to all the stimuli I have received since I was born. I went to school for the blind and visually impaired and this it helped me a lot in stimulating my poor or almost absent vision,” he explained.

And she added: “I live alone, I’m an independent person. Obviously I need help with some things, but in general I can manage myself.”

His time at the 2012 Evita Games changed his life. In that edition, Pellitero attracted the attention of a coach from the Argentine paralympic swimming team, who invited her to participate in a team training session at CENARD.

“There I discovered high-performance Paralympic sport. Before that first concentration I didn’t know it existed. But there I shared with other kids who had other types of visual impairments and I discovered that this whole world existed,” he commented.

That new universe captured her immediately. Even if the first years were not easy.

“It was complicated at first, I had to start from scratch with something completely new. But I was impatient, very enthusiastic and very passionate. And this pushed me to focus everything on high performance,” she said.

She was so convinced that this was the path she wanted to follow that in early 2014 she left her family in General Pico and moved to Santa Rosa, where she trained for a few years with a new coach. Although her biggest change came at the end of 2017, when she decided to settle in Buenos Aires.

“Coming to live alone in a city that I practically didn’t know was an important change. In the first months it was difficult for me, I returned to La Pampa quite often. It was difficult. Over the years I got used to it “And now I find myself great here. It changed me in every way. I think it was an important growth on a personal and also sporting level. Because from the first moment I was able to train in a 50 meter Olympic pool, which I couldn’t do.” “I don’t have that in La Pampa. Training in a place like CENARD, where we have a swimming pool, a gym, all the comforts to be able to work in the best way, has completely changed my perspective”, he said.

Pellitero today divides his days between sport and work. “For two years I have been working in the Administrative Department of the General Directorate of Human Resources of Senate of the Nation. “I wanted to do something different to get away from it,” he said, but his priority is training, and the results reflect that.

After adding a silver Toronto 2015 and two medals (a second and a third place) in the Lima 2019, Santiago 2023 it was their Parapan American Games. He was crowned in the 100m backstroke and in the 100m and 50m freestyle, in the latter with a new continental record. And he also won silver in the 200 medley and 400 freestyle and bronze in the 4×100 freestyle track.

“Everything went perfectly competition-wise. I was the first gold medalist of the delegation and then the first gold medal winner. And I finished as standard bearer, which every high-performance athlete dreams of. I enjoyed every moment. They were unforgettable matches,” he recalled. “With my coach, Edith (Arraspid), we always say that you have to go calmly, race after race, give your best and then the results will come. But we knew there was the possibility of adding many medals because it was well positioned in the rankings. And it was perfect in every way.”

Anita he had arrived in the Chilean capital shortly after winning bronze in the 100 backstroke in the Manchester Paralympic Swimming World Cupwith the third best time of the year, 1m17s63, grade A for Paris 2024. And that added podium at the Parapan American Games has fueled her enthusiasm for that Paralympic event, which will be her third. She was already inside Rio 2016 (sixth in his test) e Tokyo 2020 (seventh).

“I have been doing things well for a long time, with great seriousness and responsibility, and working with a great team (Editor’s note: in mid-2023 he added Gabriele Lemme as a physical trainer). This last year the results are appearing. And this is a great motivation to go with everything possible to Paris, the great goal of 2024″, recognized Pellitero, the pampana raised in water and pure breaststroke, will try to leave his mark in the Paralympic event.

“I hope the sport continues to be supported”

He’s a little less than halfway through his life Analuz Pellitero in high performance sports. Since that first contact with the highest level of CENARD ten years ago, the reality of Paralympic athletes in Argentina has changed a lot. And Pampa experienced it first hand.

“Year after year, Paralympic sport has seen enormous growth. This has a lot to do with all the work done by athletes and coaches. And also with the support of the ENARDO and the Secretary of the Nation. For an athlete, knowing that he has the support of these entities is fundamental. because it gives you the peace of mind to think about training and nothing else, it relaxes you for the better and gives you more energy. Since I’ve been in the national team, things have evolved a lot. There are more and more new kids who are very talented. And on this path I believe that we will obtain increasingly better results”, analyzed the beneficiary of a scholarship from these two institutions.

He added: “Also, it is becoming more and more professional. As it happened to me, many people have no knowledge of what Paralympic sport is, but once you enter the environment, you realize that a Paralympic athlete trains to High performance”. exactly the same as the Olympic one. This has been achieved in recent years.”

Pellitero assured that people’s conceptions have also changed, even if there is still a long way to go.

“I still believe that we are in the process of recognizing the Paralympic athlete as a high-performance athlete. But an important change has already happened, I think because it has also started to be visualized and disseminated more,” he analyzed.

The Pampa native, like all Argentine athletes, experienced the beginning of the management of Javier Milei as Argentine president. And he reflects: “From what the exponents of the new government themselves have said, sport will not be given much importance and this worries us a lot, because we dedicate our lives to this. And without the help of the Secretariat and ENARD “It is impossible. I hope there continues to be a policy that thinks about sport. I hope that sport continues to be supported, because I believe that sport heals, gives values ​​and is something beautiful.”