Cuban Weightlifter Ludia Montero bent on making history in Tokyo 2020

TOKYO, Japan, Jul 19 (ACN) Ludia Montero wants to make history at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, just as she did in 2019 at the World Weightlifting Championships in Pattaya, Thailand, where she became the first Cuban female weightlifter to ever win a medal.

Montero, until then in the 49 kg division, finished second in her first world event and new 45 kg division, as part of the strategy for the Olympic qualification.

However, her rising career to the top level continued in January last year, when she won the bronze medal in the 49 kg snatch at the World Cup in Rome, Italy, and finished fifth in the clean and jerk.

Given these results in top-level tournaments, Montero arrived in Japan with the goal of being among the eight finalists, although, as she told ACN, the competition will have the last word.

“We’re all here with the same purpose, but you never know what will happen in the competition. There are predictions, but anything is possible. One must always be optimistic, and we are going all out for it,” she said. “I think we can be among the first eight, but we never rule out an even better outcome.”

She mentioned China, India and the United States as her main rivals.

The interview with Montero could not end without the obligatory question to the weightlifters about their beginnings:

“It was contradictory, since I never really liked weightlifting, but my coach and my father kept insisting that I sign up for this sports, which now I love. One day the school team was one girl short for a provincial competition and the coach convinced me to join them. As it turned out, I was the only one selected for the School of School Sports Initiation (EIDE),” she added. “I didn't want to, but my father asked me to give it a try, and eventually it grew on me, and what do you know, here I am in my first Olympic Games!"

“Very few people who see me think I'm a weightlifter, except for the volume of my thighs, typical of weightlifters. Weightlifting deforms a woman's body no more than it makes her look like a man, that’s just idle talk. I tell all those who want to lift weights to do it without fear of what is wrongly said", she remarked.

“We are all very feminine, we dress up and put on makeup, and I think we have a nice and pretty well-distributed body, so I urge every woman to try, and they will see that weightlifting is a spectacular sport for both men and women".