Laura Maiztegui, the number 13 that reached the sky in Sydney
Laura Maiztegui, from the 2000 Sydney focus. The Platense player was the first to arrive at the selected selected being a native of Santa Barbara (the club of Majo and Vicky Granatto) and He told AM850.com the story of her career that led her to be in the 2000 Games and celebrate a bittersweet birthday in Oceania.
Linked to Santa Barbara from an early ageHe arrived by his mother, along with his brothers, (among them his twin, Verónica) to the Gonnet club without knowing in the beginning that it was to perform in the hockey and, some years and many efforts later, to travel with the Argentine team to Sydney to be part of the birth of the lions. “I started at six years in Holybecause we were close to home. It was a coincidenceif instead of being a hockey club it would have been Volleyo … today I would say that I am a volleyball player, ”Maiztegui began clarifying in a jocular way.
At present it is normalized that there are Leonas de Santa Barbarawithout going any further the captain, María José Granatto, is sports. Gonnet ladiesbut in the 90s it was something difficult to imagine And by touching him to be the first Laura tried to provide what he learned in his club: “I think that little window opens so that these rude are then today was to say: you can. Let the girls come and tell me ‘How you did to get to Las Leonas’ And try to instill that first you have to play well here, start well in your club, grow and grow. Always think about reaching the first of your club and Then the other will come, if one trains and knows what its goal is… then the other appears. ”
The news is Sydney 2000’s anniversarybut to get to it Maiztegui had to go through different processes that were forging the mentality of the athlete who traveled to the highest appointment at the beginning of the century: “In Holy We always had a team of great competitivenessamong ourselves, that made a feeling of always wanting more from girls, with my friends, We grew up with the desire to want to play in the first. Once I started taking my first steps on the top squad It was, well, ‘I reached this goal now I want to play in the selection of Buenos Aires’ And so on. One is putting those goals, that also made me like today”
A path, without so much international experience, resulted in Sydney
After overcoming various challenges in the hockey, and the great support of his club and family to devote himself to his passion, the moment of truth appeared to prove with the best in the province and also in the country:
“We were in the Junior with Vero, the two training, I remember that, that year, the goal was to reach the Argentine of selections of 98. I injured myself and she remains inside the list. Then I said ready, ‘That’s, I’m outside’. When that season ends they give the list to start training with the greatestthe junior was over for age and they tell me to continue. At that time there was a selected B in 99 and I could not believe it”, Confessed the Melli.
And he continued to tell the moment of his career that catapulted hertime later, to integrate the assumption of the lion: “Already started 99, we trained enough players, I was marked that there was a selected and obviously I was in Bbut always looked at them. We left us, they entered. We did things together, it was a year of a lot of learning, also of physical adaptation, The stick part to come from a club that had grass and a lot already played in synthetic”
The story ends there, when everything seemed to vanitize and the final stretch became more closer step the unimaginable: “During the year they tell us that we are going to do a single selected one, I think we were 25 to train for the Olympic Games. I already saw me outside because we were a lot, but when they begin to name … I was inside the group of those 25. So I had to try to believe it a little more, I was going to train directly with the girls and win a place. The truth was that they always had the doors open, they approached me to support me and to open and close with an eye We were already forming this team that was the one who traveled to Sydney later”
Yes, what happened in September 2000 was something that had been brewing many years agowhat happened in Australia was a premonition that had internally those that integrated that group of players: “I was quite dazzled, the international level did not have so much. I had only played some games, a Trophy Champion before going and really felt in the groupI felt how Vanina (Oneto) felt how Karina (Masotta) was. That is, it was what was transmitted. No one said anything, but really, among us, we thought something was going to happen. ”
Laura had the joy of September 21Spring Day, a festive moment in Argentina, but 22 years after his arrival in the world he ran into a different birthday, in Sydney and disputing an Olympic game: “It was very rare, before traveling I was fascinated with the idea of birthday there and it was not very positive. It didn’t give us much luck, that day we lost against Spain and it was a very hard moment. We learned about the regulation, everything we always count, but the truth is that it was sad”
From a lean birthday to an unpolluted memory
Despite being a bittersweet memoryat a distance -and with what happened later, he took another taste: “I remember that my parents were, that they had come to see me with my brothers, I left the court, it was my birthday Melli Also, obviously. We were crying, it was half a disappointment. But well, I met at the Olympic Games. That, ”Maiztegui recalled in a salrosa way.
After the vicissitudes, the event of nobody said, but they all imagined: the lioness was born that would mark the history of Argentine hockey and national female sport: “Actually what happened after that day was all magical. We always say is part of a story. If you want to tell a story, that was the best. I think things occurred to what happened, nobody could imagine it, so magnitude, that it was going to happen that way. We went to fight a medal, but everything that came later is something much greater than a medal, the growth that was nationwide and that everyone knows sport was something that, at least, I never imagined it”
There was a curious situation that happened with the dorsal that Laura used in the most important tournament of her careerthat is why he was also engraved on his mind and heart: “Very rare number 13 because I don’t really know why it was free and I fellit was very nice to have it. I think it was not used later, it is more of the goalkeeper. I don’t know if there are many players who have used the number 13 as a field player. Then it was also marked.“
Beyond the fact of dressing Argentina’s shirt and representing the countryMaiztegui stayed with teachings that forged his character and the way he faced life: “I spent five years in the selected one. I stayed on lists, I also saw them outside and I think I knew that I always had to be 100, always try to have a plus to be able to be, that also made my personality today that you have to fight until the last mement and then sometimes things occur and sometimes no longer, but always feel that you left everything. Maybe it seems threshing, but it is the truth. It happened to me from leaving everything and I have stayed outside, I have left everything and I have stayed inside. I mean, There are circumstances that one for more to do everything, do not stay, but the important thing is to be calm that you gave everything you had to give. “
Returning to the beginning, and to endLaura told about her close relationship with the Gonnet club after several years linked in various roles: “In the club I was a player and captain of the first, after retiring, I spent many years in the second, also as a coordinator in inferiors and today collaborating from the leadership side. I try to be able to contribute and that is all who are, contribute a little of what gave us and be able to return it. I think that’s the most important thing, ”the Melli sealed.
