By Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber and Chang-Ran Kim
PARIS (Reuters) – Mexican gymnast Alexa Moreno is relying on years of experience and the absence of some top contenders to reach the podium on the vault at her third Olympics in Paris.
The 29-year-old Moreno — who narrowly missed the podium at Tokyo 2020, finishing 0.017 points behind bronze medallist Yeo Seojeong of South Korea on the vault — returns to the Olympic stage calm, focused and ready to perform.
“I’m not a person who naturally has a lot of self-confidence, but when it comes times to compete, I get the feeling that I have been here before,” Moreno said after training at Bercy Arena in Paris.
“I already know what I have to do.”
The absence of Russian female gymnasts, who along with the U.S. team dominated the Tokyo Olympics, has opened the field for athletes from countries with less of a gymnastics tradition to reach the podium.
“There are more possibilities,” Moreno said of the absence of Russian competitors, sidelined as part of competition sanctions linked to the war in Ukraine.
“It’s a shame they’re not here because one wants to compete with the best in the world, but given that it’s a dominant country in gymnastics, that gives more possibilities.”
Moreno was the first Mexican female artistic gymnast to win a world championship medal, bronze in the vault in 2018.
Forbes Mexico has recognised her as one of the 100 most powerful women in the country, and a Barbie doll has even been made in her likeness, an honour she said was both “weird and nice.”
“All the experience I have accumulated supports my efforts,” she said. “I feel quite calm and think that everything will go well.”
Moreno, who had knee surgery in November, said she was no longer at the stage in her career where she needed to repeat her routines endlessly.
“I don’t need a lot of more repetitions. It’s something I’ve done a lot of times,” she said. “I just need to keep myself calm and just enjoy the competition.”
(Reporting by Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber and Chang-Ran Kim; Editing by Toby Davis)
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