Swimmer and adviser: the Portuguese combines politics with sports and wants to participate in the Olympic Games

Portuguese Olympic swimming champion Ana Catarina Monteiro has taken on the role of councilor for Vila do Conde city council and wants to qualify for Paris 2024 while maintaining “closeness to young people” in her old city.

In an interview with Lusa, the 30-year-old villager explains that she agreed to join the list of the Socialist Party, led by Vitor Costa, while she was in Japan to participate in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, which will be held in 2021.

“I agreed not because I was actually thinking about getting on the board, but because I believed in the project, had great admiration for the president and shared his vision and way of working,” he says.

The duties for which he will be responsible will therefore be “defined this month”, but he already knows that he will continue to work with young people, aiming to “continue the good work” of Paulo Vazquez after taking over from Mario Jorge Reis. , who suspended his mandate.

The goal is simple: “to stay close to young people, listen to them and be able to work for and with them.”

Between sports and political life, he cites “resilience as the main characteristic” that swimming gave him to “transition” into other roles.

“In sports, we work every day to achieve a goal and we know that the result does not come immediately and that the plan does not always work. I think the same thing happens in politics. We may have big projects, big ideas, but there is always a long way to go before we can bring them to life,” he says.

With a degree in bioengineering sciences from the University of Porto, she is currently on hold to pursue a master’s degree in sports management at the Catholic University of Murcia in Spain.

Despite the new meaning in life, working to achieve athletic results remains a priority, and in order to achieve your goals it is necessary to coordinate your actions with coach Fabio Pereira.

“I continue to focus on the fight to qualify for the Olympic Games in Paris in 2024. I have been combining sports with studies for almost my entire career, and this has always helped me the best,” he says.

The swimmer from the Vilacondense River “has dreamed of making it to the Games since 2012” and, after missing out on Rio 2016, she made it to Tokyo 2020 and made history by becoming the first Portuguese woman to reach an Olympic Games semi-final, in this case in the 200m. Mariposa finished 11th, Portugal’s best Olympic women’s swimming result.

Twice runner-up at the Mediterranean Games in the 200m butterfly, in Tarragona 2018 and Orana 2022, her countless career achievements include competing in the International Swimming League for the New York Breakers, the only Portuguese woman to achieve this , as well as numerous medals in international meetings.

In addition, she is the national record holder in “her” distance of the 200m butterfly with a time of 2:08.03 minutes, achieved in August 2018 in Glasgow.

Thus, participation in Paris 2024 can only be a goal of “fighting for something bigger” and achieving a new goal. After this, he admits, he will “assess and understand what his sporting future will be,” but will not end his career.

Ana Catarina Monteiro has always prioritized the connection between sport, her city and active citizenship, as she was an ambassador for Vila do Conde’s candidacy for the European Youth Capital competition, a competition in which the municipality was a successful finalist.

Moreover, he has always sailed for Fluvial Vilaconditione for “almost 25 years” and arrived at the Games in this way, a pride based on the support felt by “the club and the city, always”.

“From my first internships, to training every day in the Olympic pool, to competing overseas… at a time when I no longer had support, the club and chamber trusted me, my work and my potential, and were fundamental to my work. getting to where I arrived,” he says.

So this connection to the land makes her “very proud that she was able to complete her entire sporting career with the same club” and she is now using her connection to youth, sport and the city in new roles.