The Venezuelan fencer, Olympic champion six years ago, overcome some adversities and prepares to fight for the medals in the next Olympic Games

Rubén Darío Limardo Gascón is one of the only two Venezuelans who have given that country an Olympic gold medal. However, after that splendid combat at the London Olympics in 2012, the fencer has experienced ups and downs that eliminated it him in the edition of Rio 2016, bidding farewell prematurely of the contest.

But, recently the athlete of the Caribbean nation won the silver medal of the World Fencing Championship held in China, a result with which he climbed to fourth place in the world ranking of the discipline. With this, it opens the debate and wonder, Is Rubén Limardo in a position to return to savor the glory and repeat his feat as he did in London? From LatinAmerican Post we will give ourselves the task of examining in detail to get an answer.

Leer en español: Rubén Limardo: El renacimiento de uno de los esgrimistas más importantes del mundo

Aged or expert?

Currently, Rubén is 32 years old and at the time the sacred fire of Tokyo is lit he will have 34. Although for some disciplines such as football, baseball or cycling it is a symptom of retirement, for a specialty such as fencing is more than ideal. This is because it is a very long-lived sport for its practitioners, being able to reach an athlete even at 40 years old, forming part of the elite.

This is what Francisco Marín Álvarez , president of the Venezuelan Fencing Federation, said when he was consulted exclusively by the LatinAmerican Post team, saying that Limardo's age in Tokyo would be the right one: "in fencing until the age of 55, not the master category begins, so Rubén arrives at a perfect age. What's more, being 34 will give him the possibility to enter with much more experience on the track comparing to 2012 when he won the gold, and this is very important."

Reencounter with his confidence

It is evident that the low performance suffered by the fencer in his sports career was due to several factors but above all, to malaria. Unfortunately, this disease truncated his performance for a long time and affected his confidence.

Venezuelan journalist specialized in sports of the Olympic cycle, Eumar Essá, refers to this, who affirmed that Limardo is back. "Rubén is a man of superlative talent and who never tires of surprising us all. Being honest, because he has faced so many ups and downs due to injuries and distractions, (marriage, daughter), I thought that in recent times the tendency of his career was more toward retirement than to return to the top, and of course I made a mistake The runner-up in China and some other good results have printed a second air of confidence to his career that I think make him favorite to win everything. Because it is also that we are talking about a fencer from the biggest in the world, who still has everything to win in any event in which he participates."

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Hunger of glory intact

We all know that there are athletes who conquered the glory and that is enough to live in fullness forever. However, we see other cases of athletes who struggle continuously to stay on top, and certainly the Venezuelan fencer is part of this last line. Despite having achieved everything, day after day he works to win the new challenges that come his way.

On this Rubén himself speaks through his Twitter after the achievement of the world silver medal in China, where he argues that he continues to fight to remain at the top: "Happy to meet again at my best level, every day I fight to be the best and I will continue doing it. It is also very satisfying to be able to stand out in a discipline that seems to be made only for Europeans, and in which I finally, as a Venezuelan, continue to give battle to everyone."

Estas son las primeras declaraciones de @rubenoszki después de haber obtenido la medalla de plata en el campeonato mundial de esgrima @FIE_fencing pic.twitter.com/HWk3EylWbc

— Juan José Sayago P (@jjsayago) 23 de julio de 2018

Support of a whole country

Finally, if there is an important element for an athlete is the support of its people, and the encouragement of the fans. To these, we add the media and even, in the case of Limardo, the Venezuelan state. For journalist Essá, the aboved is the key and makes it clear that both technical and economic resources are guaranteed for him: "It is evident that both the technical resource, due to its abilities in the discipline, and the economic resource, which comes from the support of the country , he has them. That's why I think that, focused, and being lucky to be away from injuries, especially back and knee, which are the ones that have most afflicted him lately, we could very soon have the best Ruben Limardo, and why, see him again taste the glory."
 

LatinAmerican Post | Freddy González
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