condition veronica reboot, Who knew how to compete at the highest level in Ornamental hops Argentina was ranked four olympic Games, He competed in three of them (Los Angeles 1984, Seoul 1988 and Barcelona 1992) due to the boycott of the 1980 Moscow edition. He obtained valuable results for the nation such as being Olympic finalist in trampoline and platform in 1992, He returned to playing his sport in 2023 at the age of 61. However, his name goes largely unnoticed by the general public, even among sports fans and ardent followers of the exciting stories left behind by the Olympic movement. Years spent abroad or perhaps lack of popularity will be a sport that never had before its advent and never had a character of its stature again afterwards.
Today, at the age of sixty-three, he works Diving team coach At the State University of New York at Cortland (State University of New York Cortland For its abbreviation in English) and competes to the extent that his physical fitness allows in Masters tournaments. “Before, I coached for eight years at Cornell University, an Ivy League university, and also spent ten years with the youth team in Miami. Although there was a time when I felt burned out and started teaching yoga, this is my passion.” L says Clarion At a distance with the Spanish pronunciation that indicates the years spent outside the country.
-How did you decide to compete again after all these years?
The athletes, a group of girls about to graduate, asked me if they wanted to see me jump, and I told them: “I’m going to do two or three little jumps because I haven’t done anything in a long time.”. I did that and the coach told me: “Why don’t you jump into a master’s degree?” It was March 2023 and I started preparing for the Fort Lauderdale Nationals that were being held in April, but I had to cancel because I suffered a calf injury. I competed in the national championships in the summer and have been competing since July of that year. I went to the World Cup finals in Fukuoka, Japan, where I won both the 1-meter and 3-meter jump events. At the next national, in May 2024, she decided to jump from a five-meter platform, not ten meters because World Water Sports does not allow this for people over 50 years old.
Veronica Ribot with her partner at the 2025 Singapore World Masters. Photo: Courtesy– Likewise, you stopped jumping ten meters ago, right?
-Yes. Before I finished my Olympic career, several athletes who had been platform jumping for many years had medical tests performed. When they did the X-ray and MRI of my spine, I was in such bad shape that they suggested I stop jumping from ten metres. It was as if the discs were almost bursting between the vertebrae. It was a surprise because I had no symptoms or pain. I saw a doctor on my own and he told me the same thing. This was in 93 or 94, after Barcelona. “I’ve been to three Olympics, I want to have kids one day,” she thought. I started to specialize in three-meter trampolines. I won two national awards on trampoline, and I was already representing the United States because I changed my athlete citizenship. And I retired after the Olympic Trials in Atlanta ’96, when I was disqualified.
Ribot was born in Buenos Aires on February 27, 1962 and began elementary school at the Washington School in Palermo, where he commuted every morning from the house he shared with his parents and older brother in Barrio Norte, until they were six years old and they all moved to the Bahamas. “My father worked at ATMA, although I don’t know exactly what he did, and my mother worked at the Buenos Aires Herald in the promotions department. They went looking for better possibilities,” explains the person who won the silver medal at the World Championships. Pan American Games From Caracas 1983 and the bronze medal in Indianapolis 1987, both in the 10 meter platform competition. However, what they didn’t know was that the person who would find the great opportunity of a lifetime in the Bahamas would be the girl of the family.
“This is where it all really started. My memory of water in Argentina is there federal shooting club, We had swimming lessons with my brother, we had barbecues there, and the whole social issue. But he was in Freeport Aquatic Club From the Bahamas where we really learned to swim. I had asthma, and I was coughing all the time, and my mother would say to me: You have to do this. Let’s go to the club with your brother and you’ll go swimming.”. Doctors suggested I swim to open my windpipe. My cousin, a doctor, came to our house to give me an injection in my butt because inhalers didn’t exist at that time. He remembers that swimming was like therapy.
Ribot, who is still in the Bahamas, stands with his swimming medal on his chest. Photo: Courtesy-Was there love at first sight with water?
– Quite the opposite. My brother was the one who ran, and he had the talent. I wasn’t too excited about it. Actually, I don’t know how I ended up doing what I do in the water, because I have memories that scare me a lot (laughs). I was terrified because they made us jump off the diving board, which was too high for me, and we were falling into the water, which was cold, and kicking to the edge of the pool. When the lesson was over, I would run to the locker room, hide in the closet and my mother would go look for me.
-How does this story end with two American medals and an Olympic final?
– It happened little by little. All the attention was given to my brother, my brother, and my brother, who is a year and a half older than me. He’s been a swimmer since we were in Argentina and was always focused on that, while I was trying to find my place. “what can i do?” I asked myself. I swam because I had to, but it’s not what I like to do. I also practiced ballet, gymnastics, and fencing until I found my way into jumping. After swimming lessons we played on the trampoline and I loved it. There was a British trampoline coach, and there I collaborated with her.
– What is the moment like telling your mother that you will not swim anymore?
– I was 14 years old, when I told him that I would compete in the championship that I had at the time, and after that I would not go back to swimming. Likewise, he sent me to summer camp in North Carolina because he insisted I had asthma, but I ended up doing all the other activities instead of swimming. I came back saying: “You know what? I don’t have a cough anymore, and I don’t need to swim, so leave me alone.” And then of course I chose decorative jumping and the competition began.
Ribot with his mother at summer camp in North Carolina. Photo: Courtesy-At what stage did you start competing at a higher level?
– When I was sixteen years old, we moved with my family to Miami, I finished high school there and participated in the Florida state championship. I won the tournament and my coach introduced me to a woman who was the sister of a coach at Boston University, and she gave me a scholarship and I went to study there. When he learned that I was an Argentine citizen, he said to my father: “Did you know that Veronica might represent Argentina in the Olympics?” My father didn’t believe it at first, then he called CADDA (Argentine Aquatic Sports Federation) and they included me in the ’79 Pan American Games in San Juan. That was my first competition for Argentina. They were very happy to have someone competing with Brazil (laughs). I finished sixth in the three-meter jump and was the best among the South American athletes. Later, I won the trampoline race at the 1980 South American Games in Buenos Aires and jumped ten meters for the first time.
– How did you receive the boycott of the Moscow Games? (NdR: It was an action initiated by the United States in protest against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and joined by the Argentine delegation)
– I was thinking of going to Moscow and I set that as my goal. They even gave me feedback. But I was so young (I was 18) and so new to representing the country that I didn’t struggle like other older athletes and this was their last chance to go to the Olympics. For example, the coach I had in Miami, who was part of the US Olympic team and couldn’t compete. On the other hand, I knew I would be able to go to Los Angeles.
-And so it was. What memories do you have of your first matches?
-I remember the show well. We were with my teammate, Alicia Buscato, a beachista from Santa Fe, and I remember us grabbing each other’s shoulders, shaking each other and yelling: “We are Olympians, we are Olympians!” It was an incredible party. And then, I still have friends from all over the world and the fact that I belong to that small percentage of people who compete in the Olympics.
-Were you able to meet any athletes you liked there?
– In Barcelona, to Scottie Pippen and the rest of the Dream Team players. We saw them in the Olympic Village, but we didn’t want to bother them with autographs or anything weird. We salute you and nothing more. I also remember in Los Angeles we went to see Mary Lou Retton compete, and she won five medals. We met a lot of athletes from different countries, but I also think that in our sport we live very involved in our own affairs, and I, in particular, was focused on my tests.
Ribot with the Argentine swim team in Seoul 1988. Photo: CourtesyVeronica Ribot experienced first-hand the difficulties that Argentine athletes in those years, as well as today, had to go through in a very difficult path to try to reach the Olympic Games. He suffered from burnout and retired after the 1988 Seoul. “I was disappointed with the whole financial issue. I was trying to do my best in my sport, but it always ended up being a financial issue. “I felt bad because many of my colleagues, for example those from the United States, had the possibility to travel every year to do a European tour, while I was sent, I think, twice in 14 years.”
-What did you do during your time out of competition?
-It was two years. I started working as a physical education teacher in 1989, which I taught in Boston. I only worked there for a year and a half because I was sad to retire. This is not what I really wanted. I felt like I wasn’t getting the best results yet. In fact, she has reached the finals in all the games, but only in 1992 in Barcelona did she reach the finals in both events, both on the trampoline and on the platform.
-At a disadvantage compared to your competitors and with all the years you spent abroad, have you ever thought about representing the United States?
– I was at a disadvantage, but I also had great opportunities to participate in major competitions: the World Cup, the Pan American Games, the World Cup and, logically, the Olympic Games. Obviously you get better when you compete against the best in the world, but representing Argentina was a great opportunity because we didn’t have any players, so I didn’t have to qualify for these events. Furthermore, even though I have not lived in Argentina for long, I have always felt proud to represent a country that I feel is mine in my heart. I consider myself Argentinian, although I later acquired American citizenship and currently compete for the United States in the Masters Tournament.
– Could you have gone to the Atlanta Games to represent the United States?
-I tried. Likewise, I have never competed in a major event in the United States. I also wanted to go to the ’95 Pan American Games because they were in Mar del Plata, but I didn’t make the U.S. team and I didn’t make the Olympic team for Atlanta. That’s why, after the 1996 Olympic Trials, I retired. Next year, the Pan American Masters will be held in Buenos Aires. It would be a good opportunity to return to Argentina. I would love to.