“The money delivered to me by the Ministry of Sports never reaches my hands or my bank account.” Therefore, Luisa Valverde clarified this Wednesday on Facebook Live from Egypt that the monthly resources delivered by the High Performance Program of the Ministry of Sports do not reach directly to the athletes, but to the federations by sport.

The athlete confirmed to EL UNIVERSO on Sunday that she had to organize a raffle in order to pay the costs of the transfer from Romania, where she has been since January, to Egypt and Bulgaria to compete on behalf of Ecuador at the series of order II and Dan Kolov-Nikola Petrov.

According to the Olympic wrestler, she pays the costs of air tickets, her maintenance and tournament registrations herself. “I came here, and from here I went to Croatia (in series I in the rankings). I returned (to Romania) and from here I fly to Egypt, and from Egypt to Bulgaria. And from there to Ecuador,” said Valverde.

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The two-time South American champion (Cochabamba 2018, 53 kilograms; and Asunción 2022, 57 kg) had a family problem in the middle of the preparations and had to use the money intended for the international performance. For this reason, he had no choice but to organize a raffle to raise as much money as he could take part in the Egyptian ranking series from Tuesday, followed by the Dan Kolov-Nikola Petrov tournament in Bulgaria.

“In my statements to the newspaper, I did not say that the Ministry of Sports does not support me, I did not say that the Ecuadorian Olympic Committee does not support me, and I did not accuse anyone of a lack of support,” he said on Facebook Live.

Luisa Valverde, Tokyo 2020 Olympic graduate, organizes raffle to pay for travel to her international competitions

“I came to Europe in January with my resources. It has always happened to us in sports that for the first three months of the year there are no funds for the planning that is done in every Ecuadorian federation for the preparation of athletes.. So, since the resource does not exist in three months, I planned together with my trainers and the company I work with to do my preparations with the resource I had initially, because later I had to use my resource in case of emergency in the family, and in the last phase of this preparations, she was already out of funds. Then, My representative and I have decided to run this raffle to continue to deal with the expenses that my preparations bring with me in Europe.”he explained.

“At this time, I have not asked for help from the Ministry of Sports or the Olympic Committee of Ecuador. I have asked the Ministry for help at the end of the year (2022) to arrange the renewal of my passport stamp so that I can travel to Europe, and the COE for the event registration issue, because as you know we still have a problem in the Ecuadorian Wrestling Federation with the Ministry of Sports, the International Olympic committee (IOC), because our association is not internationally recognized and for this reason the management must be performed directly by the athletes”, he added.

Valverde repeated that he conducts his international preparations with his own funds, because nor is the Ecuadorian Wrestling Federation “not going to accept my plan”.

Likewise, said the fighter from Rio de Janeiro The return plane ticket to Ecuador will be bought by the Sports Federation of Guayas (Fedeguayas), despite the fact that the Ministry of Sports announced on Tuesday that the Ecuadorian Amateur Wrestling Federation will take over management, in “exceptional cases”. State portfolioafter the announcement of EL UNIVERS on social networks, the news about the solidarity raffle organized by the athlete was published.

Valverde admitted to “some discomfort” before the Sports Ministry’s announcement regarding his statements to EL UNIVERSO. The statement states that certain funds were generated for me last year and that certain funds will be generated this year as well. It must be clear that the funds do not go directly to the athletes, but to the Ecuadorian sports federations.

“Last year I was even second in ranking World Championships, how did I manage to be second in the world rankings? With my own funds because I came to Europe, I participated in events and that was enough for me to be second rankingwhich also served as a preparation for the events of the Olympic cycle, the Bolivian Games and the South American Games, which, as far as I know, are managed by the Ecuadorian Olympic Committee”, he pointed out.

‘The money doesn’t reach my hands or my bank account’

According to a statement from the state portfolio, Luisa Valverde, as she belongs to the High Performance Program of the Ministry of Sports, “receives $3,000 every month for her personal expenses.”

The athlete, however, is skeptical because “I don’t know about such a large amount of funds, I don’t even know about the funds that will be given this year for my preparations, because as I said, the Ecuadorian Wrestling Federation carries it. “Also, I have a problem with the Wrestling Federation and I don’t know how the money will be used. At no point does the amount delivered by the Ministry of Sports come into my hands or into my bank account,” he stressed.

“I’m not complaining, I’m clarifying,” Valverde emphasized on Facebook Live.

The statement of the Ministry of Sports states that in 2022, that state portfolio invested more than 48,000 dollars in Valverde, and in 2023 it will invest more than 100,000 dollars in their preparations, training and international competitions.

(D)