Jordan Diaz: "I don’t want to be rich, but to feel happy where I live"

Jordan Díaz (Havana, 20 years old) arrives at the track of the Fuente de la Niña in Guadalajara with a smile. “I am like this, happy,” says the triple jumper who has Spanish nationality since this month and he is the great world jewel of the discipline (under-18 and under-20 world champion). He escaped from the concentration camp in Cuba and is now in the Alcarria in Iván Pedroso’s group. He competes this Sunday in the National Sub-23 in Salamanca

-Since last February 1 you have Spanish nationality, how are you?

-I’m very happy. It is a very quiet place, a small city like Guadalajara. I’m on the floor with Héctor Santos, a great jumper and a great guy. The team we have is fabulouswith Iván Pedroso as coach, with Yulimar RojasAna Peleteiro, Fatima Diame…

-How did everything come about to come to Spain?

-In 2018 I started coming here, right to Guadalajara. I’ve been before like a total of three times, for several weeks. Since I came the first time when I was 17 years old, I loved this place, the people, the coexistence. I liked the atmosphere. I was very young, but I was already considering things as an athlete and a person… And in the end I made this decision.

-The step you have taken has its consequences, such as that you will not be able to return home in a while.

-In my life as an athlete, I have spent more time away from home for competitions, concentrations… If I saw my family three months a year, I tell you it would be too much. Not seeing them now is something that hurts, but it’s not that I feel very strange, because it’s been happening to me since I entered the elite.

-And how was your ‘escape’ from the Cuban team then?

-Let’s see, I had a plan drawn up. It was in Valencia, we were going to the Oslo Meeting (in July) and I went to Zaragoza, where my uncle lives, who has been there for many years, although I didn’t even know it… He got in touch and was great with me, I welcomed. Since the pandemic began, he had been thinking about this for a year and a half. He was stressed. It is that it is not something that is decided easily, because you have to give up your family, your friends. At 17 years old I would never have made that decision, not even playing. But now, the peace of mind that an athlete should have, I didn’t have.

-And then…

-I got in touch with Ana (Peleteiro). I told him: ‘Please, you need to help me, I would like to go to Guadalajara, guide me…’. He gave me the telephone number of Alberto Suárez, his manager and who is now my representative. I didn’t want to talk to Iván, because he was thinking about the Games and I didn’t want to overwhelm him. After that Alberto talked to him and they reached an agreement. In my plan, if I was training with Iván, he is a super athlete and a super person.

-How do you feel your reception in Spain?

-Believe me, it was strange, because I thought everything was going to be more difficult. I also understand that it seems strange that a person who is not from your country has nationality in four months. I have to thank the Spanish government, the CSD and the people here in Guadalajara… And I’m serious, I already have more friends in Spain than in Cuba.

-When there is a nationalization in Spain, there are always dissonant voices…

-I partly understand it from their part, because sometimes they don’t know the story behind it and the things that can happen to one. It is normal that there are those who say “a Cuban who comes to nationalize himself and take away the medals from the people.” But if I was really fine and didn’t have any kind of problem, I wouldn’t have come here.

-Did you have offers from other countries?

-Yes, I had several proposals from places that could give me money, but I don’t pay attention to that. I like Spain. I don’t want to be rich, but to be recognized, to do something great and to feel happy in the country where I live.

-Do you get along with Pablo Torrijos, the current triple record holder (17,18)?

Yes, yes, we have tried. I think that competing with him will be great, we will be able to give him the level that Spain deserves.

-As a Spaniard you already compete, but with the Spanish National Team it is not entirely clear when you will be able to debut, what version do you have?

-There are those who have seen it wrong and have put it on networks, but according to the regulations, what you competed with the previous delegation is taken into account. My last time was at the Doha World Cups, in October 2019, so I could return in October 2022. The World Cups this year are three months earlier, and they are studying to see if that period can be shortened. But I’m not worried. In 2023 I will be there to compete with the flag.

-How do you define yourself as a jumper?

-I am a happy person, behind Yulimar Rojas I try to be the soul of the team. Always dancing, singing and happy. On the track I am a serious person, because sport is everything to me, it is the only thing I have done so far. If I didn’t do athletics, I don’t know what I would do with my life.

And that started by chance.

Yes, it was boring. She was eight years old, I was with my friends and we said: ‘let’s sign up for athletics!’ The only one who took the pleasure was me and I continued, the others got tired.

-And at 16 years old he already jumped 17.30 (2017), an outrage, a mark of a great absolute championship.

Yes, I would never think that I would make a jump like that.

-Did you regret being so precocious?

Yes and no. But not having advanced so much may be in part because of the pressure they put on me after that (his personal best is 17.49 in 2019). In training I jumped 17.80, 17.60… but in competition they told me you have to jump so much now, in three years you have to do 18.00. Without realizing that I was 18 years old.

-And now…

-It is the good thing about Iván Pedroso, who has told me that he is going to treat me like a child, that there is a lot of time ahead. He tells me: ‘What we do is not now, later’. My mindset has changed. Sometimes it’s shocking, because my chip is to jump a lot and Iván’s is to be calm. Since I have come to this group I have changed everything, I do more racing. I am improving my deficits.

-How do you define yourself physically?

-I am strong, but not to lift 300 kilos, but more power. We are working on speed, which was a disaster. I will work little by little. Not all at once.

-He debuted last Saturday as a Spaniard with 16.36.

-In that test I did half a race, but I will go with everything in the National Sub-23 this Sunday in Salamanca (the record for Spain is 17.18), but I don’t think about it.

-The great barrier of the super jumpers is 18.00. does it look on her?

-It is complicated, but the barriers can be overcome. She also did not believe that she would jump more than 17 meters at the age of 16.

-Your reference?

-Christian Taylor. He is my favorite athlete, we have talked. As a jumper he is great, but as a person more…

-How do you see yourself in the medium term?

I can’t predict the future, but I look good. Experienced, stronger…