Almudena Cid (43) is a brave woman, although she says she has many insecurities stemming from the fear of not being accepted. Since she left her native Vitoria at the age of 14 to devote herself to rhythmic gymnastics, her life has been a continuous struggle: first, for responsibility towards the family, which she feels she abandoned, then to place herself among the best gymnasts, then against their Federation in search of equality. When she retired from the sport, she also struggled to find a job and, after breaking up her 12-year marriage to presenter Christian Gálvez, to rebuild herself internally.
The only rhythmic gymnast in the world who has competed in all four Olympic finals (from Atlanta in 1996 to Beijing in 2008) has found a way to heal emotional wounds in writing. “I don’t consider myself a writer, because I’ve been writing newspapers since I was little. I don’t make fiction, but pour out my thoughts to understand and rearrange what has happened to me. It has been a survival mechanism. The whole children’s collection of Olympia has been to sort out my childhood and adolescence as an athlete and the last book, Caminar sin punteras, to find myself after the personal collapse that I experienced last year”. explains Almudena Cid to this newspaper.
In addition to writing, when her stage as a gymnast ended she began her career as an actress. “Now, very soon, I will finish the performance of the play Ladies Football Club in Madrid. And it makes me angry, because it’s been a year and a half since we told a story that is so similar to what the players of the Spanish national team are living now, and that it is set in the United Kingdom of 1917”. And he continues: “when I see what the footballers are going through, I think they are very brave, for all the pressure they have to endure and the drain of energy, because, in addition, they have to continue training and competing”. In his time as a gymnast, Almudena Cid had to face the Federation: “I didn’t like how things were done and the only answer I got was ‘you dedicate yourself to training and other things we’ll take care of it’. I felt misunderstood and alone, which is why I am now moved by the union of female footballers, since I only found support from my coach. But I worry that they have to manage all this instead of dedicating themselves solely to football”.
Since retiring from gymnastics, Cid has accompanied Paloma del Río as a commentator on the broadcasts on Teledeporte and does not know what will happen at the 2024 Paris Games: “It will be very strange. I can’t imagine myself without her, because we had a very special relationship in front of and outside the microphones”, he says.
In recent months, Almudena has been linked with ex-footballer Gerardo Berodia. “I don’t want to talk about it – she says, seriously – because I’m in a stage of moving forward and building. To accept myself, to be good with myself and to have close people who love me, respect me and value me”.
In this new stage, the actress has made the decision to leave Madrid and return to Vitoria, to be close to her parents. “They are getting older, and I left a long time ago, but I also want to create my own home, which will never be taken from me – he confesses – because I need a feeling of belonging to a place and I belong to this land, and I can go in Madrid to work”. A piece of land has been bought and in three months “the excavators will start, and let’s see if I can be installed there by Christmas 2024”.
Coincidence or not, this week he sponsored a sofa and rest store in Pamplona, ??Mimma Gallery. “I have no talent for decoration and here I found ideas for my new home”. He explains that, in his home, the sofa is the fundamental piece: “It’s where I take refuge when I get home at the end of the day. I’m always on my toes. The chaise longe is where I study the scripts or relax while reading a book”.
