Almudena Cid: "I experienced an identity crisis when I retired, you feel that you are worthless"

"In sports, age always tightens and tells you 'it's over now'"

MADRID, 23 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The former Spanish gymnast Almudena Cid confessed that in sport "age always squeezes you", although she discovered "the virtues of the experienced gymnast" and took "self-esteem" to get the most out of "maturity" on the mat, by At the same time, she revealed that she was not a "competitive" athlete and that she experienced an "identity crisis" upon retiring.

"I started in the gym because at home I always threw the hairbrush and caught it, so my mother decided to put me in a gym because if not I would end up with the house. I have always been very skilled with the equipment, with a lot of dexterity with the body, in addition It was very flexible, and I have always been clear that I liked it," Cid told Europa Press in an interview at an event celebrating the 15th anniversary of the Spanish Association Against Cancer (AECC) and Ausonia.

However, the former gymnast never believed that "it would be international" and that "it could be a benchmark" within her sport. "I showed that maturity and experience are something very favorable to prolong your career and show a very mature gymnastics, which is what you like to see," she said.

The one from Vitoria completed a 21-year career that ended at the Beijing Games in 2008, with her fourth and last Olympic final. The Spanish is the only gymnast with four finals in said sporting event, after going through difficult times in her most mature stage, in a sport where youth, only a priori, is an advantage.

"As a child, it was not difficult for me to start in the discipline, it was difficult for me when I felt that I was expendable and someone else could take my place, a younger, more agile, thinner one, I had a hard time. But I began to discover the virtues of experienced gymnast. A self-love comes out that was not there before and it is very good for the competition", he explained.

Cid insisted that, although the innocence of childhood can facilitate obedience in that training process, if you want to be a professional gymnast, your whole life must be "one hundred percent for gymnastics." Although it is "important" to have "moments of oxygen". "I had active vacations, I learned to rest by training, because one already begins to know himself," he recalled.

The Russian gymnast Oksana Kostina was her role model since she was little, and now Almudena Cid is proud that, despite not having won a medal in any major event, she is one for many girls who start in her sport. "It still surprises me a lot that after 15 years, I still give gymnastics classes and they fill up. Girls who weren't born when I was competing know my career, they know who I am... That seems so nice to me," she said.

"Normally we associate success with medals, but there are athletes who transcend due to other types of aptitudes and attitudes. That is my case, longevity, having adapted to different code changes... The value that I have had is that I have adapted to different codes, it gives me hope that the public has stopped on that and not on the medal", he reflected on the success.

For the former gymnast, the athlete's expectation "for his sport is very important." "It's not that I didn't expect to get a medal, it's that I knew what I could get to," she said, before assuring that an athlete must "be aware of why she does this sport.

"Many times we focus more on the applause of the outsider, their opinion, than on the personal journey itself, because in elite sport very few arrive. There are people who reach success very quickly and when you retire later nobody remembers you, then if you don't value yourself, no one will value you," he said.

In her particular case, she always felt that "it was shit", but at the age of 21 she realized that her thoughts "did not square with reality". "I was not competitive at all, I wanted to do my job, feel proud of my work. Yes, when something happened to me it was like 'this will not be able to me'", she deepened.

"I came to face the Federation (Royal Spanish Federation of Gymnastics) because they did not want me to continue training in the place where I worked. Facing my job in 90 seconds and fighting with an institution stronger than you ... It was the most complicated to manage. Later it took its toll on me, because of that rejection, abandonment, nothing revolved around me", he said regarding a clash with the RFEG, with which he does not want to "work", since he knows "the reality of the federations ". "If I went in, I'd have to do a wonderful cleanup," he criticized.

In those 2008 Games, it was the first and last time she kissed the mat to leave behind a long career at the age of 28, being the only gymnast so veteran in the elite. After announcing her withdrawal, she Cid suffered "an identity crisis", "She thought: 'Who am I going to be without gymnastics?'", she pointed out.

"You feel that you are worthless. You go through a complicated transition until you realize that you can recycle a lot of what you have experienced as an athlete, I did it as an actress. I have realized that I had a long way to go. Yes, there is a transition difficult, but after taking the step you find all your strengths," he added.

The former Basque athlete took refuge in the world, new to her, of acting, an "organic" choice that she "needed" to "go through" all her emotions. "It was a way to heal me. You sharpen empathy and it has made me a better person, reading, seeing theater, with the cinema ...", she explained.

"It's a world that I couldn't explore because of gymnastics. I live similar sensations, I recover what little I liked about the competition on stage. Here I don't worry so much about age, something that in sport was always squeezing you and telling you: 'it's over now'", he lamented.

In addition, he recognized that his experience as a gymnast is still practical for him in his day to day. "At my mature age dramatic things have happened to me and I have realized that my mechanism of action to get out has been the one that I have generated in the sport, and I keep that, on top of being the only one with four Olympic finals, It is a reference for women... I keep that mechanism of action, a way of reacting that helps me to get out of things before," he commented.

Finally, Almudena Cid celebrated being able to "spread" breast cancer, being the image of the AECC and Ausonia campaign, and "raising awareness" about surveillance and reviews. "I want to send a message, which is at the same time very sporty: focus on step by step. This is hopeful. There is a very high percentage of cure, a lot has been allocated to research, there are many very hopeful developments," he concluded. she.