The third and final World Cup of the season was held in January, in the city of Cali in Colombia—another transatlantic journey for a particularly important race. Through that race, the 20 best ranked athletes of the world would be qualified for the Track Cycling Word Championship, which will be held in Paris in February 2016.
My preparation for that race has been the best possible. Luckily, I managed to recover in time from my injury in London and had intensive training during the Christmas season in the frozen, yet familiar, velodrome of Athens.
Although the final result of the race didn’t satisfy me, I successfully managed to qualify for the World Championship in Paris!
During my stay in Cali, which is essentially the second largest city of Colombia, I was particularly impressed with the total absence of tourists in the city and the extreme policing and protection of all those who were participating in the event. To and from the airport – and generally, wherever I was going, whether for training or just to buy something from the supermarket - I was always escorted from at least one army official. As I learned along the way, the police and the army are closely related in this specific country.
All this overprotection made me feel a constant threat, a constant fear that at any moment something bad would happen.
Obviously, all of these measures were taken for our safety, and I don’t judge them. Yet, why do you choose to take so many risks by holding this event in a city so hostile and xenophobic?