Senior Alvarez Takes 2nd at National Showjumping Championship

Next challenge is to qualify for the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris.

Emiliana+Alvarez+and+her+horse+Hayco+finished+2nd+in+the+2021+National+Showjumping+Championship+in+Bogot%C3%A1%2C+Colombia.

Courtesy of Emiliana Alvarez

Emiliana Alvarez and her horse Hayco finished 2nd in the 2021 National Showjumping Championship in Bogotá, Colombia.

Senior Emiliana Alvarez won second place out of 14 participants in her category at the national showjumping championship in Bogotá, Colombia on December 15, 2021.

Alvarez won with a 1.35-meter jump in the most important and awaited show of the year in Colombia. She felt very anxious when she was about to start but managed to concentrate and in the end, be the sub champion of this grand event which took a total of three days in order to fully qualify to be on the podium. 

“It’s the National Championship, and I was very anxious. I was shaking before the competition just before entering the ring, I was very very nervous. I don’t know, it’s just like, I’m in the zone and everything around me disappears,” Alvarez said. 

There were a total of 5 rounds that took place over several days. The first round was on the first day and it was “Table C”, meaning that whoever has the best time (shortest time possible) wins. However, with each bar that a competitor tipped over, 3 seconds were added to their time. In the end, the person with zero faults or the least amount of faults wins first place.

“When I enter the ring, everything goes silent. My mind goes blank and the only thing I can think about is how well I am going to execute my technique. After the last jump on the final round, I knew I had gotten on the podium and could not be happier,” Alvarez said.

The next day was the second and third rounds in which she tipped over a bar in the second round but in the first, her score was perfect with zero faults. There was a day of rest in the middle of the rounds and after that, it was the last day in which there were 2 more rounds that she had zero faults in.

“The scores were based on the accumulation of points in all the rounds and with this, I was able to be in 2nd place and on the podium for the national showjumping championship. I couldn’t believe it but I knew that I deserved it as much as all the other competitors that were there. All my hard work paid off,” Alvarez said.

Emiliana Alvarez has been riding horses her whole life. Her first encounter with horses was when she was 8 months old, officially starting classes when she was about a year and a half. After that, classes continued almost every day, and began competing when she was 3 years old. Since then, her whole life has been based on horses and horse-riding and she loves it.

“I felt nervous when I was at my first competition, my instructor had to yell the colors of the order of the jumping because I didn’t know my numbers, I was just 3 years old,” Alvarez said. 

Since Emiliana Alvarez is a high-performance athlete, she is not able to attend all of her classes due to competitions and big events. The school understands her needs and allows for her to have time to do her school assignments in her P.E. class. She was also able to skip a year of school by doing more work in order to graduate earlier.

“I ride every day, I barely have time to do homework before or after school. I also have my absences excused every time I have a competition so that when I go back to school, I can easily catch up,” Alvarez said.

Her biggest goal is to go to the 2024 Olympics with the help of her friends, family, instructor, and mainly her dedication. This dream is not too far from the future and her success in the National Championship is bringing her closer to this than ever. 

“With this spot in second place, I know that I can keep increasing my skill level and therefore, bring me closer to going to the Olympics in 2024. As the years go by, my dream gets closer and closer and my dedication gets stronger.”