Martha Sandoval, Heading to Paris

Mexico City (apro). – A year ago, after the decision of Ana Guevara, director of the National Sports Council, to deprive aquatics athletes of scholarships and financial resources, Martha Sandoval organized a lottery of sports products to pay for your participation in the Fukuoka Swimming World Cup and find your tickets for the Paris Olympics. Despite the difficulties, the swimmer achieved her goal and will become the third Mexican athlete to compete in the open water event in the greatest sporting event.

When Martha’s youngest sister, Aidé, was three months old, she accidentally fell into a pool. From then on, her mother decided to send her three daughters to swimming lessons, and the solution turned into a love of water.

Martha switched from summer swimming lessons to the Ciudad Deportiva Aquatic Center in Mexicali, where she has been training for 13 years. The athlete remembers that she also took Hawaiian and Tahitian dance classes while swimming, but the feeling of the water flowing through her body made her choose swimming completely.

Another of her sisters, Chris Belén, became the first to start participating in national and international competitions at the age of 11. Martha was inspired every time she saw photos of the places where the eldest daughter of the Sandoval family had been and the medals she carried with her. It became the dream of the eight-year-old girl to travel to other countries in swimming, win competitions and participate in the Olympics.

The Baja California native excelled in the 200- and 400-meter freestyle, but, as her brief career progressed, she and her coach realized two things: She wasn’t as fast as her competitors, but she had more stamina. So in 2013, she tried open water swimming.

“As much as I loved competing in the pool, I felt a lot of pressure because of the speed of my opponents, like the water was going to drown me, and no matter how hard I tried, I didn’t have a good start when they kicked off the start line, and I couldn’t do it. For a while, swimming stopped making me happy. When the possibility of an open water race came, everything made sense, and feeling the waves crashing against your body as you look for first place is an indescribable feeling,” Sandoval said.

Swimming 12 kilometers at a time quickly became a habit. His body got used to the demands of long distances. He felt free. Victories at local and Central American level began to come from his strokes. In 2021, the day before the Tokyo Olympics, he was sick with gastroenteritis. Despite the diagnosis, Sandoval still participated in the competition. Dehydration, fever, nausea and vomiting prevented him from performing well. He missed his chance.

Despite the bitter taste of not qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics, Sandoval did not stop and continued to swim against the tide. A year later in November, at the 2022 Central American and Caribbean Beach Games, he won gold medals in three different events: the 3km, 5km and 4x1000m mixed relay.

Sandoval was looking for a new chance to qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics, and to do that he needed to leave his home country to compete internationally, gain experience and compete with the best. But there was a problem with their plan: a bad decision by director Conard.

The swimmer is one of many aquatic athletes affected by the abuses of Ana Guevara, who in February 2023 arbitrarily and illegally deprived them of all federal public resources, such as sports scholarships and travel expenses to participate in international competitions, which would have helped them to increase their level. Sandoval stopped receiving his scholarship of six thousand pesos per month.

Cachanillas did not sit idly by and organized a raffle for sports equipment (swimsuits, suitcases, swim caps) to cover the cost of the 2023 World Cup in Fukuoka. He raised 60,000 pesos, but needed about 90,000 pesos, taking into account flights, accommodation and food.

The athlete decided to seek financial support from the Institute of Sports and Physical Culture of Baja California (Inde), which he received. “Inde gave me the remaining money and then helped me pay for every travel and accommodation for national and international competitions,” he said.

Before the Fukoka World Cup, he stopped at the 2023 Central American and Caribbean Games in San Salvador, where he finished on the podium three times. He won gold in the 5km mixed relay and silver in the 5km and 10km events.

He didn’t achieve his goal in Japan, but he had another chance to realize his Olympic dream. At the 2024 World Cup in Doha, Qatar, he finished 23rd with a time of 1:58:21 and earned his ticket to Paris. This is the best position for a competitor from the American continent.

Martha Sandoval will become the third Mexican swimmer to compete in the open water event at the Olympics. Imelda Martínez Gomez competed in the 2008 Beijing Summer Expo, when the sport was first included in the Olympic program, and finished 20th. In London 2012, Lizeth Rueda Santos did it. She is now a triathlete and has just qualified for the 2024 Paris Olympics.