The last installment of Camino a casa, the program presented by Albert Espinosa on Antena 3 Television, featured the athlete and Olympic medalist Ana Peleteiro, a young Galician who had to face racism and xenophobia as a teenager. That, far from sinking her, served to pull out her nails and make her stronger.
And about that hard episode of her life, the athlete wanted to be honest last night. Regarding the way in which her father encouraged her to defend herself against her and she, aware of the insults that were being hurled at her, did not hesitate to get into the odd fight. Now, after time, Espinosa gave her the opportunity to send a message to those who harassed her and called her a “black shit.”
The emotional journey of Ana Peleteiro, a Spanish triple jump specialist and bronze medalist at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, was most enriching. The Galician, a native of Ribeira, in addition to explaining how her biological mother abandoned her and later she was adopted by her adoptive parents, also explained the previous rejection she suffered at the hands of another family that, due to her skin color, refused to continue with the procedures.
“They didn’t want me because they told them I wasn’t completely white,” she recalled. However, that led her to her parents, with whom she has always felt complete and complete, which is why she never wanted to look for her biological mother.
One of the hardest stages of the athlete was the institute after leaving school behind. “It was a very big change. I came from a very small, very familiar school and here, suddenly, I entered a class with 32 people, with people from other schools, new teachers, my mother was no longer here… â€, she began, recounting her.
“That was when I suffered a bit of bullying, that I did not suffer bullying, because I defended myself at all times, but I had to fight several times,” he said. This meant that her father had to go to the head of studies practically every day, “but he always told me: ‘Defend yourself, daughter, as if I have to come here every day of the week.'”
And it is that, at that stage, Peleteiro suffered for the first time harassment and racism at the hands of other colleagues. “It was the first time in my life that they called me a ‘shit nigger,’†he assured. In fact, the athlete does not remember “this institute with the best of memories. I had bad times. Black is not an insult, it is the fact of saying it in a derogatory wayâ€.
This led the Galician to reflect on how she lived those years and how, the time that has passed, puts everyone in their place. “They have to be saying: ‘My goodness, I tried to make this girl small and look at her where she is,’†she said. And, she added as a message to her stalkers: “Time puts each one in her place and I have that very clear.”
