The Lanzarote native Rayderley Zapata, known as Ray Zapata, competed this past Saturday in the Olympic artistic gymnastics final at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. At 2:30 p.m., the athlete, born in the Dominican Republic but residing in Lanzarote since he was ten years old, was the only Spaniard who managed to get into this Olympic event. Despite this, he did not manage to secure a place on the podium and finally obtained seventh position.
Through his Instagram account, Zapata has narrated to his 60.9 thousand followers the allergic reaction he suffered upon arriving in the French capital. "As soon as I arrived in Paris, these marks appeared all over my body. It is believed to be due to an allergic reaction," the Olympic gymnast began.
According to what he confessed, it was "very uncomfortable" to be able to train with those welts. "It created distrust in me for a while, I decided not to give it importance and continue with the training," he added. To conclude, he pointed out that "every effort has its reward."
Zapata dreamed of being an Olympian and achieved it at the 2016 Rio Games. In the following ones, in Tokyo 2020, he won the silver medal in the floor exercise.
This season he was recovering from a muscle tear that kept him away from international championships.
"It's been three years since I've been in any kind of final, neither World Cup, World Championship, European Championship, but once again I have shown all those people who didn't believe in me that I'm here again," he told Teledeporte.