Mariana Pajón writes for EL TIEMPO after competing in Paris 2024: ‘I thank the country and I apologize, I gave it my all!’

You saw me cry and it’s no wonder. When I finished the last race and didn’t see myself on the list of those who qualified for the final, it wasn’t easy to accept it.

I felt a huge, gigantic emptiness, but at the same time I can’t explain why and I can’t find the reason because I more or less knew what could happen.

When I ran the quarter-finals on Thursday, something special happened. It was a very tough experience for me, perhaps the hardest I have ever experienced at the Olympic Games.

I had to pedal up, they overtook me, I had one more lap, the repechage, and my legs hurt more, that weighs on me, that’s what your body takes its toll on you.

I wanted to go back home knowing that I had given everything and that is what I did. There are no reproaches here and in sport there are no miracles. It is clear that one prepares, demands, trains, but At the moment of truth, you have to be realistic, the level rises, there are riders who have come from behind. Now, a little more calmly, I analyze what has happened and I gave my soul, because I had no body. The body held out because my heart still believed.

These Games were nice, even though I wasn’t in the final and I didn’t win medals like before and I have a lot of things going through my head. I have mixed feelings.

I was going to retire in 2022, I said no more, but I started to think that the Games were going to be in Paris, which is my second home, I knew that many Colombians, my family, would be there and that is why I made the decision to continue.

But I did it because I wanted to prove that it was still possible. Whenever I stood at the starting line I remembered many things and I was doing good times, but in life when you doubt, you lose, and that’s what happened here.

I gave everything I had. These tears, puff, were because I was close to the final, that was the goal here, because when you are in the final anything can happen and I knew that my head was focused on that.

You know, I was calm, but deep down you always feel that anxiety, despite the years you think about so many things, about giving satisfaction to many people, to the country, to the fans, that was the most important thing. This new BMX format is very difficult, because it demands more from us, we had to be in the game and what happened was simple: I wasn’t there.

Life teaches us lessons every day, and yesterday it taught me several. One of them is that you have to try to achieve your goals, you have to persevere, have faith, and give it your all.

Even if everything is against you, even if nothing works out for you, you have to keep moving forward. I want to tell young people to dream, not to wait for opportunities to come, to go for them, to look for them.

Meeting Vincent after the race

When I finished the race, I met Vincent, my husband, and I was in tears. We hugged each other and cried in an incredible moment, because when Germán Medina, our coach, left for the United States, he told me that he supported me in whatever decision I made, that if I wanted to retire he was with me and if I wanted to continue, the same.

Getting to the Paris Olympics was a real challenge, the most difficult qualification I have ever achieved because of many things that left their mark on me.

We both wanted to be in the final, but it wasn’t possible, we didn’t make it. Vincent wanted to be with me, he retired to be my coach, we sacrificed a lot as a family to achieve something at the Olympics. I am so grateful to him.

You can’t imagine the pain I’ve had in the last few months because I’ve been plagued by injuries. That last one in my elbow hit me hard. I didn’t have surgery because it would have meant losing my chance to race in Paris, so I had to train hard with tremendous pain in my arm, but my body held up.

I qualified for the Games, which was difficult. I didn’t have the parameters to be on the national team and I only recently got my place.

This track was for people with long legs and everything was against me, but I said that it was my track, my people and that I had to try. I’m leaving with tears in my eyes. I cried, it’s hard to describe it, we did what we could with what we had.

I thank the country, but at the same time I apologize, because my mission is to give them a lot of joy and I couldn’t this time. And since I’ve been asked a lot if I’m going to retire, if these Paris Olympics were my last, I want to make it clear that I’m continuing, because I love cycling, I love BMX and I want to keep pedaling.

Mariana Pajon

For the time

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