Flor Denis Ruiz writes for EL TIEMPO and vents after losing the Olympic medal: ‘I feel sad, nothing came of it and there are no excuses’

I feel sad. I was doing great. I felt better in the competition than in the semi-final, but I don’t understand why I didn’t make the great throw yesterday in the final of the Olympic Games in my discipline: the javelin throw.

There is no excuse, I don’t have one. To Colombia I say: thank you very much for the support, and I accept everything. If God gave me that fifth place, it is for a reason. You have to accept reality and it hurts me what happened because I dreamed of a medal. Don’t feel like I failed you, because you know that in every competition I do my best, I always improve. But, look: this final was surprising. I thought about my family with every throw. Now, all that’s left is to sit back and analyze what happened.

I don’t want criticism. I gave my all in every throw. You all know who Flor Denis Ruiz is. It hurts me because you all know that I always bring back a medal and at these Olympics I wanted to give it to my daughter, but I couldn’t, and she knows that her mother is strong.

I’m not crying because there’s no reason to. With the qualifying mark (64.40 m) I would have won a medal and that hurts, yes it does, but it wasn’t possible.

With each throw I told my coach, Ramón Breto, that the next one was the definitive one, but it never came. He always believed in me. He told me to stay calm. I threw the javelin hard and nothing came out.

When I approached the coach he would remain silent, because the reaction had to be mine. I motivated myself. I told him to stay calm, that I would set the mark on the next attempt. ‘You know that I always set a mark, a record’, and he trusted me, but it didn’t go beyond that.

I tried a few things to see if I could change anything in the competition. I was mentally strong, very strong, but I decided to make some changes to see if anything would improve.

I changed my shoes, took off my elbow pad to see if I felt anything new, but nothing. What I write is not an excuse, but you have to accept the result.

It wasn’t a question of pressure because Flor Denis doesn’t put herself under pressure, I never feel it. The gold medal went to Kitaguchi Haruka, with 65.80 m. The silver medal went to Jo-Ane van Dyk, with 63.93 m and the bronze medal went to Nikola Ogronnikova, with 63.68 m… Congratulations!

When I’m competing I switch off. I don’t look at my rivals’ results, because I’m always thinking about my own. I was throwing hard with the javelin, but I couldn’t run, I couldn’t feel my arm. The truth is that it didn’t happen, it didn’t happen and there’s no excuse because I don’t understand why I didn’t make more progress…

What happened in Paris is a part of life and, as I have been telling you, I do not feel guilty: I feel sad because I did not win the medal, I know I could have won it, but the fact that I did not win does not mean that it is the end, because I am one of those people who accept all of God’s wills.

What comes after losing the Olympic medal

My dreams don’t end here because this isn’t a defeat for me, this is a learning experience for me and I’m stronger than ever, because I know that Flor Denis is doing great. Things didn’t work out for me, there must be a reason.

I always move forward, no matter what happens, and I know I have a lot of potential. So to all of Colombia, thank you very much, really, thank you very much for trusting me, thank you for that immense support you gave me, so
this is what Flor needs to continue persevering and remain strong.

This is not the first time that I have felt the javelin slip, I have felt it before. The javelin not flying and I could not feel my arm have happened to me in other events.

There are a lot of things going through my head right now and I don’t know what came over me…

I felt faster and everything, but the truth is that my arm didn’t respond. I’m still the tough Flor Denis, but this time my arm didn’t give out. In the warm-up I marked 60 meters, easy, but I got to the competition and it went away. I’ve done the 63 meters, my best time in the final, many times, but this time I couldn’t beat it.

I repeat, I don’t feel guilty, I feel sad about the medal because I know I could have won it, I am one of those people who accept everything that comes. Now, let’s look to the future…

FLOWER DENIS RUIZ

For THE TIME

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