Juan Miguel Echevarría maintains his dream intact for Tokyo

April 4, 2020

The dream of reaching the top of the podium and displaying an Olympic gold medal is something postponed for long jumper Juan Miguel Echevarría, who like the rest of Cubans and the world is living these days between anticipation and the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic.

"There's a positive side to everything, now I'll arrive in Tokyo with one more year of experience and that could be better for my goal," he comments during times of waiting for the virus that has taken over the planet and forces changes to schedules.

The Tokyo Olympic Games will be in the summer of 2021, a 12-month delay from what was planned, and Juan Miguel will compete a few days before turning 23 years old, but he already assures that he will present himself with the same conviction with which he was preparing.

"What we have to do is take care of ourselves, stay home and keep informed, but I'm sure that in a while we'll be able to return to normalcy, train and compete again for the Tokyo dream," assures in a brief telephone conversation with JIT the 2018 indoor world champion and 2019 outdoor bronze medalist.

Juan Miguel went in just a few months from being a prospect to moving among the most followed figures in world track and field.

His images "flying" over the sand pit, with marks that Cubans haven't enjoyed in a long time, led him to establish himself as number one on the list among fans.

A personal record of 8.68 meters and others beyond, not ratified due to slight favorable winds, accompany his trajectory; even in this 2020 everything was going smoothly (8.41 indoors) until COVID-19 changed the world.

"We'll see when we get over this and I compete again, I'll do it with great desire and equally seeking my goals," he confirmed hours before relocating temporarily to his native Camagüey, from where he will follow his trainer Daniel Osorio's instructions to maintain some physical condition.

"We already agreed and I'm going to work exercises with resistance bands and other things that's what I can do from home. We have a weekly plan set and we'll review it together by phone," he details about how he will spend the following weeks.

"The only important thing now is to do our part to defeat the Coronavirus… Tokyo won't get away… a year later I'll arrive with more eagerness," he confesses aware that it's in his hands to fulfill that dream.