The pressure that Yeison could feel as the hope of Colombian weightlifters to win a medal was really little compared to what his family felt when the clashes between the guerrillas and the paramilitaries reached their home, his family received death threats, his father Lucreciano left with a little Yeison of only 12 years and his brother Dávinson for Cali, leaving behind his mother and his other six siblings for a short time, because the threats did not subside and instead increased. So, this young man was not going to feel pressure for medals, when he knows what it means to put an entire life in boxes and suitcases to flee to save it.
How could he feel pressure if for a long time, when he arrived in Cali and discovered weightlifting, he had to walk because there was no money for tickets.
How could he not have gotten his head together, if in 2014 he had lost his sporting direction, had retired due to lack of support and managed to return to win medals at the U-17 World Cup. How could he not be able to stand up, if in 2018 he tested positive for boldenone and was suspended for four years?
As if this story, which seems like something out of a movie, which has all the elements of a movie hero’s journey, were not enough, in 2022 he suffered from dehydration in his spinal discs and returned to the track in 2023 to begin the path that brought him to the Olympics.
López gave us joy when we needed it most. López, the one who was injured, the one who tested positive for doping. López, the one who studies Sports Management.
This story ends with the account of what happened in Paris. López stepped onto the competition platform. In his hands he was not only going to carry the weight of the discs on the bar: he was lifting the weight of an entire country that was going to criticize him if he lost, that was going to praise him as a demigod for a few days if he won; the injuries, the sadness, the kilometers on his legs, the accusations and sanctions for doping, today they no longer mattered, he was winning the silver medal at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
Yeison’s overflowing emotions infected the Colombians who, through the screens of the venue, saw how López was moved to tears and collapsed in a chair while his trainer, Luis Arrieta, hugged him. The image alone is epic, the gladiator in his corner, crying his victory; the trainer making sure that no one sees the hero cry, but it is an effort in vain, because López’s tears infected the entire country.
One more emotion
And while we were still celebrating Yeison’s medal in the locker room, Mari Leivis Sánchez, born in Turbo, Antioquia, was concentrating. Luis Javier Mosquera, her teammate and captain of the weightlifting team, had warned the night before that she, the one they didn’t talk about, the one who didn’t appear in anyone’s projections, could surprise.
Sánchez forgot about the world, he let the coach make the decisions, he trusted Arrieta, who had been fine in his decisions. He let himself go and got some unexpected money, but beyond that, the reality is that in one way or another he made things easier for the entire Colombian delegation.