{"id":314232,"date":"2024-12-04T18:56:02","date_gmt":"2024-12-04T23:56:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/?p=314232"},"modified":"2024-12-04T18:56:02","modified_gmt":"2024-12-04T23:56:02","slug":"omara-durand-when-you-are-the-best-in-the-world-everyone-is-ready-to-beat-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/sports\/omara-durand-when-you-are-the-best-in-the-world-everyone-is-ready-to-beat-you\/","title":{"rendered":"Omara Durand: \u201cWhen you are the best in the world, everyone is ready to beat you\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

What are 726 seconds? It may seem like a long time, but actually, we are talking about just 12 minutes, less than a quarter of an hour.<\/span><\/p>\n

If we mortals stop to think about what we have invested in any 12 minutes in our lives to achieve something truly transcendent, we may have a hard time finding an answer. On the other hand, some people, chosen and touched by the hand of the gods, can boast of having put the world at their feet in 12 minutes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

One of those privileged ones is Omara Durand (Santiago de Cuba, 1991), who in 726 seconds won 26 races and 11 crowns in the Paralympic Games from London 2012 to Paris 2024. In all this time, which has slipped away almost as quickly as her devilish pace on the track, the indomitable sprinter also collected 10 Paralympic records and four world records. She was simply overwhelming.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere are those who have told us, especially the coaches, that they plan from silver to there. The gold is ours. Rivals see it as something unattainable,\u201d Omara reveals to <\/span>OnCuba<\/b>.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Omara Durand, the great champion of the 16th edition of the Paralympic Games in Tokyo 2020. Photo: Otmaro Rodr\u00edguez<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In her words, one can perceive a certain air of grandeur or superiority, but she quickly qualifies what she says and makes it clear to us that, in addition to her speed, what has most distinguished her career is humility: \u201cI say that, just as I appeared one day, another woman who dominates speed can appear, of course.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

For now, that throne of the tracks in the T-12 category (severely visually impaired) has been left vacant after the Paris 2024 Games, which marked her retirement from active sport after almost 25 years of training and sacrifice.<\/span><\/p>\n

From Santiago to the world<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cI started in sport when I was 7 years old. I studied at a school for blind and visually impaired children in Santiago de Cuba. I had a physical education teacher called Reynaldo Gaspar del Castillo, and he realized that I could practice athletics. \u201cIt was he who encouraged me to get into this world,\u201d Omara recalls in a direct journey to her origins.<\/span><\/p>\n

Her story brings to mind innocent passages from her childhood, the birth of her love for athletics and her journey through the different levels of education, both special and regular, in which she learned essential lessons for life, such as being grateful: \u201cI feel eternal gratitude towards all the people who helped me at school; not everyone does that.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI did not suffer discrimination from the other kids, but in the classroom, everything went faster for me. I went through the distance lessons and I didn\u2019t even watch TV. There I had to find mechanisms to keep going because you can\u2019t stop. I was lucky to find classmates who supported me, who sat next to me to dictate to me what was written on the board,\u201d says Omara.<\/span><\/p>\n

From that stage, she began to forge an iron personality, always focused on seeking a little more, on pushing the limits: \u201cI have always tried to improve myself and never see a wall in front of me because I have a disability, not see a wall that I cannot cross, feel that I have obstacles in my life. I have also been very optimistic, very positive in dealing with society, with my disability, and feeling good, and fulfilled. My mother says that since I was very young, I set goals for myself, whether in sports or at school, and I still do today. When I face new challenges I breathe better,\u201d says the runner.<\/span><\/p>\n

Queen Omara Durand<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n