Paula Peña Ribot is a girl from Tenerife who, at just 8 years old, is shining on the national sports scene with her gold medal in the Spanish BMX (bicycle motocross) cycling championship this year and her silver medal in 2021. is preparing to participate, for the first time, in a world championship, which will be held at the end of July in the city of Nantes (France).
“I want to improve myself and try now to be the world champion. It is my dream”, affirms Paula, who studies 2nd grade at the CEIP Camino de la Villa, in La Laguna, where, as she confesses, her class friends congratulate her on her sporting successes. She follows the advice of her parents and responsibly simultaneously studies her, in which she gets good grades, with sports.
Her parents, Maria Ribot, an administrative worker, and her father, Adrián Peña, an unemployed electrician, acknowledge that it is very difficult for them to meet the expenses of this trip to France, but they are clear that they should not deprive their daughter of “a opportunity that she has earned on her own merits and to which she is entitled”.
They explain that in January they asked the City Council of La Laguna for help to be able to pay for this participation in this world championship, and although the municipal government was receptive to helping her with future sponsorship, the reality is that for this important event in Nantes they have not received no subsidy, which has complicated the situation for them.
For this reason, María and Adrián have had to save as much as possible on transportation and the only way they have found is to travel by boat from Tenerife to Huelva (1,500 kilometers in 38 and a half hours) and then drive to France (another 1,600 kilometers). , with which, between round trip, 6,200 km will be covered in this way, since plane tickets were unaffordable for them.
Meanwhile, Paula trains three days a week, two hours each day, at the Parque de La Vega circuit, in the municipality of La Laguna, with the club she belongs to, the Bmx T’rider.
This national champion says that she has a great time training and in the competitions she has attended outside the Canary Islands. His wish is to dedicate himself professionally to cycling, but he must go step by step. And the ones she has given so far cannot be better.
His sports idol is the Colombian runner Mariana Pajón, who has been a two-time gold medalist in the Olympic Games, who is known as the queen of BMX. “I want to be like her, she is my favorite,” says Paula.
Paula’s parents feel “proud” of their daughter’s achievements, although they are aware that this debut in a World Cup is an important leap in level because she is going to compete with the best athletes of her age at an international level.
In any case, María and Adrián know that, as the Olympic motto says, the important thing is to participate. “We are investing all our time and money in this hobby of Paula’s, and we do it because she has earned it hard”, confess the parents of this athlete, who remain hopeful that some public institution or private company can help them not only not now but in the future so that his daughter can compete outside the Canary Islands, since the distance from the continent is a handicap for a modest family due to the extra cost it entails.
