BOGOTA.- The Colombian Olympic Committee presented the tenth edition of the Altius 2022 Awards at the Great Auditorium of Compensar, in the Colombian capital, with an impressive red carpet to receive the best athletes of the year 2022, where the weightlifter Yenny Alvarez was consecrated as the Athlete of the Year of the Olympic Program.

An example of sportsmanship, Yenny closed a year 2022 of achievements for the Neo-Granadian sport, by proclaiming herself 54 kg champion with two gold medals, during the World Weightlifting Championship held in Bogota, in December.

Other laurels obtained by the weightlifter from Cauca were the gold medals in the Bolivarian Games, Valledupar 2022 and the South American Games, Asuncion 2022.

The weightlifter is emerging as one of the main cards of the Colombian delegation in the next XXIV Central American and Caribbean Games, San Salvador 2023, where weightlifting is scheduled from June 23 to 27.

Yenny Álvarez is an example of perseverance without fainting, which helped her to find herself again and to increase the pride of her family.

“Sport was the horizon I needed to get ahead and help my family, so it was the best way out. It gives us good opportunities and gives us a better future,” Alvarez said in an interview with the newspaper Semana.

The Altius 2022 winner began at age 13 to practice weightlifting after the loss of her mother, and in 2012 she represented Colombia at the Pan American Youth Championships in the women’s 53kg, with a bronze medal, starting a career that to date has more than 25 medals, including two gold medals in the women’s 58kg at our XXII Central American and Caribbean Games, Veracruz 2014.

Yenny belongs to the Bogota weightlifting team and is working hard to be Colombia’s representative at the Olympic Games in Paris 2024.

OTHER AWARD WINNERS
Ingrit Valencia, Colombian boxing laureate, received the Silver Altius and Kevin Santiago Quintero of Track Cycling received the Bronze in a night of distinctions for Colombian sports where the U-17 Women’s Soccer World Cup was recognized with a special distinction, which managed to thrill the country, showed the national sport internationally and is the best presentation in the history of soccer in Colombia in all its categories.

Tatiana Rentería, U-23 world champion in wrestling and of the I Central American and Caribbean Sea and Beach Games, Santa Marta 2022, was also awarded as Promise of the Year of the Olympic Program. She also won the gold medal at the last Bolivarian Games, Valledupar 2022 and the bronze medal at the South American Games, Asuncion 2022. In the same category, Natalia Linares in athletics, received the silver medal, and Ingrid Segura in weightlifting, won the bronze.