Ever Palma's Road to Redemption in Paris 2024

Ever Jair Palma Olivares, 20-kilometer race walker, is a strong candidate for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, as he is currently leading the men's national ranking with a time of 1:19:26, which he achieved last month at the Japanese Race Walking Championships, which meant that he obtained the qualifying mark for the summer competition and set his personal best.

“I feel happy, it is a mark that we had already sought last year, and we had not been given the opportunity, but this time we had all the favorable conditions and now face the new challenges, we hope to improve more this season and to be able to fight for good places,” he shared, in conversation from the National Center for Development of Sports Talents and High Performance (CNAR).

For the walker, who has a previous Olympic experience in London 2012 and Rio 2016, meeting the minimum requirement established by the World Athletics for Paris 2024, was an achievement with which he returns to the path of the great fair, after being left out of Tokyo 2020 due to a hip injury; this year's edition means the opportunity to fulfill his dream: to achieve an Olympic medal.

With the latent desire, Ever Palma has an important ally, his brother Adrián Isaías Palma Olivares, who for four years has been his coach, while on the track, his brother Isaac Antonio Palma Olivares, Olympian in Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020, also seeks to join the athletes who arrive in the French capital.

“We have been chasing that dream of being on the podium at the Olympic Games for a long time, about 16 years in high performance that, in reality, have passed superfast, now with more experience and experience; I am in a very good moment of my sports career, and we can achieve it,” he said.

“I have been with my brother as my coach for more than three years, we have been coupling very well, made a very good working team with the multidisciplinary area; it is a blessing to share this Olympic path with my brothers, we never expected to be in that sporting aspect already more professional, I am happy that we accompany each other, and it reinforces our good family relationship,” he added.

After being a specialist in the disappeared 50 kilometers event and later 35 kilometers, Ever Palma made the change to 20 kilometers, an adaptation that he described as fast, “self-knowledge has been my strength and the basis of everything we have done, also with the multidisciplinary team, it has been important to see and support me to plan together and work all on the same line,” he shared.

From coach Adrián Palma's perspective, the key to success has been the walker's perseverance and the mutual trust that has been manifested in the work that corresponds to each one, because, although the Olympic qualification has not been made official yet, he assures that the mark places them in a “comfortable” situation.

“I'm very happy with the result, it's still not a sure qualification, but it puts us in a pretty comfortable situation. Ever is a very persevering athlete, he has been a very significant factor throughout this time we have been working and above all the confidence he has; it has been a long road, but we made it,” he commented.

“Apart from the fact that we are brothers, we both trust, I trust him, and he trusts me, as an athlete-coach it is something reciprocal, a fruit of the work not only of both of us but of the multidisciplinary team”, shared the coach, who assured that now they are looking to qualify twice in mixed relay modality, in the World Team Race Walking Championship, to be held on April 21 in Antalya, Turkey.