Paula Pareto and her coach gave up their scholarships to be able to finance other athletes in the face of the sharp cut suffered by judo

With two and a half months to go before the start of the Paris Olympic Games, Argentine sports suffer from the budget cut promoted by the Sports Secretariat headed by Julio Garro. In this situation, Laura Martinel and Paula Pareto They went out in the media to communicate the situation of judo in Argentina and made the decision to give up their scholarships to be able to finance other athletes.

Martinel is the National Technical Director of the Argentine Judo Confederation and is the historic coach of the Peque, bronze in Beijing 2008 and gold in Rio de Janeiro 2016, who today is in charge of the under 13, under 15 and under 18 youth teams. .

“We are in a complicated moment because it is the renewal of scholarships and It turns out that they want to make a fearful cut in the number of interns. There are scholarships from ENARD (National High Performance Sports Entity), scholarships from the Sports Secretariat and there are double scholarship recipients who have scholarships from the Secretariat and Enard. We have 18 scholarship recipients, but the Argentine Judo Confederation has been asked to leave only 4. It puts our sport at risk because we need to have an active mass of athletes training and obviously, the coaches,” Martinel explained in dialogue with the TyC Sports signal.

“I was put in the difficult situation of carrying out this pruning, which the truth is I am not willing to do because it does not seem fair to me and because I think it is signing the death certificate of my sport. So, thinking about how to be able to retain as many scholarship holders as possible, I decided to give in, give up my scholarship from the Ministry of Sports so that there is more funding for more athletes. and Paula (for Pareto) when I told her what was happening she told me that ‘I also give up mine’. So we have both decided to resign so that these funds go to finance more athletes,” announced the Head Coach argentina.

Martinel gave details of the amounts that they want to cut: “The 18 scholarship recipients who only have a scholarship from the Sports Secretariat They add up to 2 million pesos per month. And in total there are 34, 16 have a double scholarship. “We are talking about 375, 400 thousand pesos per athlete per month.”

Meanwhile, Pareto confirmed his decision to renounce the scholarship and asked for “consistency” so that Argentine sports can continue to grow: “It is very hard because from 18 to 4 is a number that is very difficult to handle, it is very difficult to talk about it with the kids. From an athlete’s point of view, it would have weighed on me. There are many kids who are living in Buenos Aires paying rent and things that already cost them a lot and telling them from one day to the next that they are going to have one less income is hard, so they are going to end up going back home and the sport stops growing. Beyond the sadness that this entails, because it is already a very big effort that they make to leave their families and their friends in their respective provinces and when these things happen it is like everything is thrown out of whack and they don’t deserve it.”

“That’s why I made the same decision that Laura made., at least if it is of any use to contribute the financial part on our side by giving up our scholarship to be able to support there. It is the team that we put together in judo and it is like that ‘today for you tomorrow for me’. But beyond that, I think it has to be reviewed because it is unsustainable. When you are an athlete they demand results from you, but they give you less and less. You also have to be a little consistent in what is demanded and what is given. With the creation of ENARD it was an important support and things began to change, but today it is complicated again with these things. And what we want is for it to be known so as not to continue muddying the sport, to be logical between what is asked for and what is given. And let’s all point in the same direction. If we want the Argentine flag to grow we also have to support sport“said Pareto.

“I always say that I don’t talk about politics because I don’t understand, but lowering the number of athletes from 18 to 4 is difficult. I don’t know what was discussed in the talk that was had with the Confederation, but I think that negotiations are always made , but I think this time there was no negotiation. It’s difficult, the truth is that the only thing I can say is that it makes me very sad that this happens, that at least the judo boys can continue training and competing. As a former athlete he makes me very sad and as part of the coaching staff as well.”

Pareto explained that she is “general coordinator of the high performance team under 13, under 15 and under 18. Just as Lau is the Head Coachthe boss of all of us, I am the deputy boss of all the coaches who are in charge of the youth teams.”

Martinel added more details: “I was not at the meeting between the Confederation and the Secretariat, but from the Secretariat they have a number that has to be closed and the way they have to close it is by doing this pruning. That’s why I came up with this, we give up our scholarships so that money can go to fund more athletes. Because we do have in mind the sport we want and a strategy for the development of our sport. And also a boy who is 23 years old today is the one we need for 2028. And the younger ones are going to cost much more to arrive. “So if we run out of that litter, we are losing a cycle.”

Finally, Pareto left pending another issue that was discussed among the Argentine athletes and that is what will happen with the financing of sport after Paris 24: “There is a lot of concern in the Athletes Commission because it is not known what will happen after Paris. “Today our eyes are on the Olympic Games, but after that there is no certainty.”