Daniela Torres: the journalist who became a marathoner to fulfill the dream of going to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games

“When I crossed the line, I had mixed feelings, but I was moved by what had happened to my mother. She died last September and the last time I spoke to her she told me, 'I want you to go to the Olympics. I know you can.” He commented in an interview for the Tokyo 2020 portal.

Daniela Torres Huerta, originally from Celaya, Guanajuato, was born on July 23, 1994. The day and month coincide with the exact date on which the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games will begin, where he will go to give his best in memory of his mother, who died in September 2020 because of an illness he suffered for eight years.

During each competition, Daniela wears a brooch in the shape of an angel that belonged to her mother. Although she did not know the full potential of the athlete, she always knew that her daughter would achieve great things in the sport, such as getting the Olympic mark.

In 2019, the runner quit her job as a journalist to fight for her dream of going to the Olympics that will be held in Japan. His first international competition was in April, in which he won the Olympic mark with a time of 2:28:55 and dedicated the achievement to his mother.

“Until July 2019, I was working in communications, but I quit my job and everything else, to pursue this new dream of becoming a professional athlete. Sport has always been attractive to me and I used to imagine myself at the Olympics working as a journalist. I would never have thought that I would have the opportunity to participate in the Olympic Games as an athlete,” he said in an interview with the Tokyo 2020 portal.

The 26-year-old athlete began her career in sports when she arrived in Querétaro in 2012, when she also began studying communication and journalism, at the National Autonomous University of Querétaro. She has participated in several marathons at the regional and national levels, but when she entered Gondi MX (a team of professional athletes) in 2019, she improved her marks and has been prepared to qualify for the Olympic Games.

Sunday, April 11, 2020, is a date that will forever remain in Daniela's memory, because at the Xiamen Marathon and Tuscany Camp Global Elite Race, in Siena, Italy, she won the Olympic mark with the time of 2:28:55, which is the requirement established by the World Athletics to be able to go to the Tokyo women's marathon held on Saturday, August 7, 2020.

In the 42,195 km circuit, it was in 15th place out of 23 competitors, it remained under the mark 2:29:30 that establishes the body that governs world athletics. When he crossed the finish line of the Vienna Marathon, in which he won the mark, he did so with tears in his eyes and with a hug from his coach Enrique Hernández. At the Tokyo 2020 Olympics he will give his best effort to climb the Olympic podium and honor the memory of his mother, who from always and until the end of her life supported to achieve all his dreams, both in sports and in his career as a journalist.

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