Natalia Malaga: Self-discipline & Enthusiasm!
Colin Powell, the former Secretary of Condition of America, after mentioned: “There are no secrets and techniques to achievement. Success is the outcome of perfection, difficult operate, studying from failure, loyalty to those for whom you function and persistence”. Undoubtedly Mr. Powell could nicely have been chatting about Natalia Málaga, the last survivor of the golden technology of Peruvian woman volleyball gamers who won several trophies in excess of the past fifty percent-century, putting Latin America’s woman activity on the Olympic map, together with Nicaraguan-born Costa Rican Claudia Poll (swimming), Gabriela “Gaby” Sabatini from Argentina (tennis), and the women’s basketball facet of Brazil, of training course.
A-Born Athlete!
Nearly every person in Peru has read her title in current many years. Within Peruvian circles, she is one particular of the two most well-liked and revered folks, along with Gastón Acurio, who is frequently referred to as 1 of the gurus in Planet Gastronomic.
She was born Natalia Maria Málaga Dibos on January 26,1964 into a sporting loved ones in Lima (Peru), the 3rd biggest region on the South American mainland. In this context, she confirmed assure as an athlete at a very young age, profitable considerably encouragement from her teachers, friends, and team-mates. Like several other women in her hometown, she dreamed of one particular day enjoying for Peru’s women’s volleyball squad.
She was modest, but overcame this with her voracious appetite for wins. Over people several years, she participated in a great number of volleyball meets, a sport that much more than any other embodies Peru’s multi-racial society. Quickly afterward, Málaga’s excellent talent and self-control gained the interest of several coaches, amongst them Norma Velarde and Luisa Fuentes (the two who fired the national desire in volleyball in the 1970s when they claimed a number of prime honors).
Not long later on, she was promoted to Peru’s under-17 countrywide volleyball staff. During this period of time, she began to acquire her 1st international fulfills. As early 1980 as, for case in point, she lifted both the Continental Cup for Ladies Under-17 and the Beneath-19 South American Match. That very same calendar year, she received favorable notices and was widely described as a achievable Olympic sportwoman to go to what is now Russia to compete in the Game titles of the twenty third Olympiad. However volleyball positions handed unnoticed in the former Soviet Union when the junior squad competed from senior groups from Iron Curtain nations such as the Democratic German Republic (GDR) and the USSR. At Moscow, for example, the host country beat Peru three-1. But that was a huge encounter in a time when the Latin American republic experienced not cash to make pre-Olympic tours -unlike Cuba, United states of america, Brazil, and Japan– on Considerably East and Eastern Europe. Virtually all of Peru’s expenses were paid out by the Kremlin at the 1980 Moscow Games.
Many thanks to this knowledge, virtually two many years later, an eighteen-12 months-previous rookie, Málaga produced a sensation at the Junior South American (SA) Championship when Peru claimed gold at the cost of Brazil. During individuals several years, Peru developed what has been referred to as the “miracle of Latin The us”. As no other country in the Third Entire world, there had been a great deal of world-course volleyball gamers despite many obstructions: Denisse Fajardo, Gina Torrealba, Cecilia del Risco, Cenaida Uribe, and Aurora Heredia, amongst other folks worldwide stars.
Even so in time, by mid-1984 specifically, the nation’s head coach Gentleman Bok Park had his eyes on Málaga to change Carmen Pimentel. Thereafter, she became a celeb in her property place, alongside with her other crew-mates, as the national side arrived shut to successful the Olympic glory in late 1988.
Even with becoming a single of the shortest customers of the Peruvian volleyball squad, she was a single of the best players in the history of match in an era when her place had been devastated by one particular of Latin America’s worst conflicts (during people troubled times, the Peruvian squad was an exception in Entire world sports). Her Olympic leadership was (and as coach presently) quite comparable to the previous goalkeeper José Luis Chilavert of Paraguay, who was often referred to as 1 of the world’s leading footballers in the past fifty percent-century. After a 23-12 months sporting career, Málaga officially retired from the activity in 2003. Following Peru’s declining volleyball image, she turned to mentor. She desires to set the Latin American republic again into the international race.