PARIS, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- Spanish triple jumper Ana Peleteiro-Compaore focused on just one thing in Paris, which is winning an Olympic gold medal to add to the bronze she notched in Tokyo 2020.
The 28-year-old, who won the recent European title in Rome, has worked back to fitness after becoming a mother in 2022, and the absence of reigning Olympic champion, Yulimar Rojas in Paris has further increased her medal chances.
"I have trained to be an Olympic champion and the only thing I have in mind is gold, although being an Olympic medalist again would be wonderful," said the Spaniard, who begins her competition on Saturday.
"Being here in Paris after becoming a mother is already a gift, but I am an ambitious person and very competitive and I will go out to give everything for myself, my family and gold, as I always do," she added.
Peleteiro-Compaore said that motherhood presented a range of different factors in her life.
"You have to learn to go with the flow," she joked, explaining that "Suddenly your daughter can catch a virus, it spreads to all of us at home and affects your performance."
However, it can have its plus side: "it also gives you extra strength that means that if you're playing for a medal in the last jump, you get 10 centimeters more off the ground because you've worked so hard and spent so many sleepless nights that the tiredness of a competition doesn't affect you in the same way."
A popular personality in Spain, Peleteiro-Compaore said she hoped her experience would "serve as an example to other women, I am delighted that they take my case as motivation."
"I haven't done anything that another person cannot do. I have simply put more effort into it," she concluded. ■
