Olympic medalist denounces lack of support from the Colombian Athletics Federation

The Olympic medallist who won the silver award at the Tokyo Games held last year in the athletics category, Sandra Lorena Arenas, in a dialogue with the radio station La W, denounced the lack of support from the Colombian Athletics Federation and the Olympic Committee.

The 28-year-old commented that she has not been accompanied in the search and selection process of her new coach, she also pointed out that she must be in another country to start preparing for what her competitions correspond to this year but they have not given passports or visas to the high-performance athlete.

Sandra mentioned to the W: “The Federation and the Olympic Committee have been experiencing several problems in terms of the support that I must have for my next processes and competitions. Last year in November we met with the multidisciplinary team because I had problems and disagreements with one of the coaches that he had, he came to the conclusion that he would no longer be my coach for many situations, for many years I had psychological abuse from this person so it was also the best decision that could be made. Since that moment I feel that the Federation and the Olympic Committee have not received full support from them, since it was my turn to start the process of looking for new coaches, who would hire them. They have already hired the coaches but they haven't received any kind of payment yet. ”

The high-performance athlete pointed out how one of the most serious situations is her present since she should be in another country carrying out the training process but due to the alleged bad processes of the Committee and the Athletics Federation has not been able to.

“It would be assumed that I should be in Australia doing my preparation for what is this season, I have been coming out of an injury and I have to make a good liaison with the new coach that I have who is from Australia, we asked the Committee that I needed to be in that country on April 9 and it is time that they have not solved anything” said the Olympic medalist Sandra Lorena Arenas on the microphones of La W.

Regarding this, Félix Marrugo, president of the Athletics Federation, replied: “I went to the Federation officials and they informed me that it is a process through which the Ministry of Foreign Affairs helps us to get the visa to Sandra Lorena Arias from the embassy... What I can assure Sandra is to manage, find out and address this request,” added Félix Marrugo, who asked the athlete for 3 days to solve it.”

To this, the high-performance athlete replied strongly: “For 15 days they told us that the proposal had to be passed 20 days ago, the request was made with the coach, I have the e-mails since March 24, this is the date I keep asking. And it is a lie that they are applying for visas, I have already gone to Australia and it is time to go to the embassy and request the documents and this is the time that they have not been done. They are altering a process, they are not giving support,” concluded the Olympic medalist.

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