Olympic weightlifting champion María Isabel Urrutia first woman to lead the sport in Colombia

Very few women direct the Sports Ministries in South America and among all of them only one is an Olympic champion: the Colombian María Isabel Urrutia.

The legendary athlete and gold medalist in weightlifting at the Sydney 2000 Olympics, has begun to take on her first challenges in the sport as part of the leftist Gustavo Petro’s cabinet. She has said one of the toughest battles she promises to fight is to professionalize the work of women soccer players.

The first Olympic champion in the history of Colombia and gold medalist at the World Weightlifting Championships in 1990 and 1994, she is also the first woman to serve in that position in a country where, despite the difficulties of equal access to sports, has made clear progress on the continental stage, and in the ability to organize major competitions.

First for Urrutia, 57, will be representing the sport and Colombia at the World Weightlifting Championship in Bogotá, and also preparing for the Pan American Games in Barranquilla in 2027.

Next November, she will make her first appearance at a multidisciplinary event at home with the First Beach Games of Central America and the Caribbean in the city of Santa Marta, but weeks before she will have her debut at the South American Games in Asunción, Paraguay, from October 1 to 15.

For now, on the domestic level, Urrutia made her debut speaking loudly to the presidents of the Colombian teams on the topic of the Women’s League during a radio interview, in search of the most favorable conditions possible for female soccer players, who were finalists in the last Copa América. They will look to build on that success at the U20 World Cup which begins August 10 in Costa Rica.

“For me, as a feminist and a woman who had to come to a totally masculine sport and break the mold, it is not easy. I already know that and I have been working with the people that have to do with women’s soccer,” said Urrutia, who directed the weightlifting league in Bogotá, was a member of the coaching staff of the national teams and was a member of the House of Representatives of Colombia between 2002 and 2010.

But not only in football. She also has in her plans to reinforce the inclusion of women not only in sports, but also in spaces such as management and the training of new talents.

In the Sports Talent and Reserve project, she will try to find the biotype required for the multiple disciplines in each municipality of the country.

Urrutia must establish audits for the sports works, for which she will carry out a relevant inspection of the state of the works tendered and in the process of being tendered, she will examine the budget for the Directorate of Sports, Recreation and Physical Activity and Stages together with the Ministry of Tax authorities.

In the first 100 days of Petro’s mandate - former guerrilla and first leftist ruler in the history of Colombia - he plans to file the National Sports System Bill.

Urrutia has already sat down with those who designed the project to put together a lasting state policy and take advantage of what the outgoing government has done. The new minister hopes to better structure the programs that welcome the ‘old glories of Colombian sport.’

Urrutia, who also stood out in international athletics in the discus throw and shot put, does not lose sight of the fact that there are less than two years until the Paris 2024 Olympics and hopes to meet with the Colombia Olympic Committee soon.