Luisa Blanco: After Seeing Laurie Hernandez Win Olympic Gold, “Everything Changed for Me”
The Colombian American gymnast soared in Paris, honoring her “two worlds.”
4 min
By Scott Bregman
Luisa Blanco
Artistic Gymnastics (Ulrik Pedersen)
Growing up, Colombian American gymnast Luisa Blanco was surrounded by greatness since she moved as a young girl from Los Angeles to the Dallas suburbs. When football (soccer) season ended—her family devout fans of the Colombian national team—her mom channeled her boundless energy from living-room leaps to gymnastics.
Her talent was evident early on, as coaches at the World Olympic Gymnastics Academy (WOGA) quickly informed Blanco’s mother that they wanted to nurture her abilities. “The gym owner approached my mom and said, ‘I think your daughter has something special, and I’d love to explore that with you,’” Blanco recalled in an exclusive interview with Olympics.com my mum your dad 2024. al-ittihad vs al-ain “I started at WOGA because it was the closest gym to home.”
“Luck followed after that,” she continued. kentucky “Looking back after many years, it’s a place where Olympians are raised. While I was training at WOGA, I saw all these incredible girls like [junior U.S. leyton orient vs peterborough champion] Katelyn Ohashi, [world and Olympic champion] Madison Kocian, and [world champion] Alyssa Baumann.”
While Blanco acknowledges that talented trio inspired her, she felt something was missing: representation from women who looked like her. “Even though they weren’t Latinas, they were in my group, and I could take inspiration from them,” she said. “But being Latina in a space with few Latinos is extremely difficult, especially in artistic gymnastics.”
Laurie Hernandez Changes the Game
Then, Laurie Hernandez transformed the landscape for Blanco when she became the first Latina U.S. gymnast since Annia Hatch in 2004. “I think in 2016 is when everything changed for me, seeing Laurie Hernandez do what she did,” said Blanco, reflecting on the member of the ‘Final Five’ who won team gold at Rio 2016. “At that moment, the idea of representing Latinos became something I wanted to pursue in the future.”
Blanco on Her Journey to Paris 2024: “It Wasn’t Easy”
Eight years later, she achieved just that, qualifying to represent Colombia at the Olympic Games in Paris 2024 through her performance at the 2023 Pan Am Games in Santiago, Chile. In Paris, Blanco qualified for the individual all-around final. However, the road to that point was filled with challenges.
“It wasn’t easy because everyone noticed that I’m brown-skinned, I’m Latina, and they’d ask, ‘Can you speak Spanish? Speak it now,’ as if it were a trick I could pull out. It was little things like that, but they bothered me a bit, and you realize you’re different,” said Blanco. “When I was a kid, that hurt.”
Despite these hurdles, it also motivated her. “I thought I wouldn’t get far because I was Latina, because that’s what society told me… I always had to work a little harder… I had something to prove to the world,” she continued. “That’s what pushed me throughout my career.”
Finding Her Place
Blanco has often felt, as she says, stuck between her two worlds: “My whole life has been in the United States; I’ve been very Colombian, and in Colombia, I’m also a little too American. I’m stuck in this grey area where I don’t know where I belong.” Her Paris experience—and the journey to get there—changed that. keir starmer sausages “Since I qualified for the Pan American Games, I believe my life has changed, and I’ve started to have more connection with Colombia,” said Blanco. “Everything has been positive, and I can’t ask for more; I have to thank Colombia for accepting me and giving me so much love.”
The 22-year-old points to the beginning of her collegiate career at the University of Alabama as a pivotal moment in her approach to the sport and how she connects her rich heritage. “When you get to university, gymnastics is no longer an individual sport but a team sport. You’re competing for something bigger than yourself, and that’s where I felt my pride,” said Blanco, the 2021 NCAA balance beam champion. “I’ve always been proud to be Colombian, but finally, I have the platform where I can express that to the world.”
“It started small, with the music I choose for my floor routines, to where we are now, doing interviews in Spanish, I’m posting on my social media with subtitles, trying to— I don’t know—unite my two worlds.” That experience has been rewarding for Blanco, to say the least. “It’s been something so incredible that I don’t want to stop living it,” she shares.
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