Ana Peleteiro thanks Cuban Iván Pedroso: "He took me out of absolute shit when I was a 65 kilo girl"

The Spanish athlete Ana Peleteiro, who has just won the bronze medal in the triple jump at the Tokyo Olympics, thanked her coach, the legendary Cuban jumper Iván Pedroso.

The stellar 25-year-old Galician athlete recalled how much she has evolved since she began training with Pedroso, Olympic long jump gold medalist in Sydney 2000 and four-time world champion.

"Iván has been the person who has trusted me, who has taken me out of absolute shit, from a girl who weighed 65 kilos, who had excess fat everywhere, a talent that was broken. She was a broken toy, literally. He trusted me, grabbed me and told me: 'We are going to do it. I don't know if it will be here, in five or ten years, I don't know when it will be, but we are going to do something great together,' Peleteiro said at a press conference.

The young woman trains with the VenezuelanYulimar Rojas, who in Tokyo emerged as the absolute winner of the triple jump specialty, by breaking the world record with a mark of 15.67 meters.

"We are a team, we are a pineapple," said the Spanish.

"These last two months I have felt more than ever that Team Pedroso is a Team. (...) We have come here as a team to fight, to war, as I said two days ago and we are very united. And that is all thanks to Iván because sometimes we are a group that has a very good level, but it is very difficult to manage," he clarified.

The athlete revealed thatPedroso, who has a great friendship beyond the slopes, scolds her when she cries if she makes a bad jump in competitions, but noted that sometimes she can't contain herself.

"I cry a little, you concentrate again and you try because I was third, I could aspire to something more. I tried until the last jump. What happens is that it is a very hard competition, very long. The dehydration was noticeable, the fatigue was present, but still doing all the jumps above 14.50 is amazing... I'm happy," he stressed.

Peleteiro assured that what he wants most at this moment is to rest away from the slopes.

"Now I deserve a vacation, a rest. My body is literally at its limit. I have discomfort, well, my body hurts, my head hurts from putting up with Iván every day. So I'm going to tell him: 'See you in September,'" he said.