At 35 years old, boxer Atheyna Bylon will put her name in the books of the history of the Olympic Games by being the first woman in Panama to hang a medal at the most important sports event on the planet. With his victory this Thursday, at least silver was guaranteed in the final in Paris.

In the trajectory of the Panamanian, the great clearing was the 2014 Jeju World Boxing Championship, South Korea, which won and served to put her name in the world orbit of that sport.

After a good campaign in various competitions, she arrived as a “invited” to this World Cup, organized by the World Amateur Boxing Association (AIBA).

In this event he traced his path to the most farth passing without problems the preliminaries, the direct elimination phase and in the final he realized, in a complicated 2-1 match, to the Russian Saadat Abdullaeva, to hang the gold.

With the world title in hand, Bylon began his trajectory of triumphs in competitions of the Olympic cycle, until he got the ticket for the Rio 2016 Games.

In this Olympic fair she finished in the ninth square, four years later, in Tokyo 2020, where she was the standard-bearer of the Panamanian delegation, she entered the fifth square, winning an Olympic diploma.

PARIS 2024, THE LAST TRAIN

Bylon always had as a mission to win an Olympic medal in Paris, in what she at the time called her possible last games.

“I always say that they are my last, I say it now, but God will know what will happen,” the boxer told EFE last April.

Bylon does not hesitate to also adopt a future role of “farmer”, his other passion, when he leaves the police and hangs up his gloves. Despite insinuating her retirement from boxing, the Panamanian promised to reach the Olympic Games “in the best conditions,” before leaving for Paris.

Prior to that important event, the Panamanian woman gave views of being the country’s great bet by adding gold medals in 2023 at the Bolivarian Games of Valledupar, in the South American Games of Asunción, in the Central American and Caribbean of San Salvador, and silver in the Pan-American Games of Santiago de Chile.

Panama has three medals in its history: two bronzes in London 1948, in the men’s 100 and 200 meters, both by Lloyd La Beach, and a gold in Beijing 2008 by Irving Saladino in long jump.

Soon there will be four, and this will be in boxing, the sport that has a long tradition in the country and that has Roberto “Manos de Piedra” Durán, multiple world champion and hall of fame, as the world badge.

A PATH OF SACRIFICES

Bylon, the fifth Panamanian boxer to attend these competitions, began a little late in Olympic boxing, at the age of 26, he said, alternating this activity with his police work in Panama, in which he currently has the rank of sergeant first.

“It’s not easy, I’ve been boxing for 11 years and (so far) I’m seeing the fruits,” said the boxer, after her second fight at these Olympic Games in Paris 2024 in the 75-kilogram division.

And he has achieved everything despite the lack of support that Panamanian athletes receive, which results in the fact that sometimes they have to make “sacrifices”, such as using their own funds to pay for part of their training.

“Many times I have had to get out of my money. People don’t know what you live as an athlete, because everything comes out late. When I have already returned from my commitments, after two, three months, the support is coming out,” Bylon told EFE at the time.

Despite these situations, the boxer gives special recognition to the managers of Panamanian Olympic boxing, the Panama Olympic Committee (COP) and the National Police.

“If I didn’t have the support of the National Police, I think my preparation would have been very difficult, because I would have to train and do my turn as a Police,” he said.