Emanuel Ot\u00e1lvaro discovered table tennis in Rionegro, Antioquia, at the age of five, thanks to his brother Federico, who practiced the sport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
From the very beginning, his mother, Yolanda, knew that Emanuel was destined for greater things than just picking up balls. The coach of the Table Tennis Club, Juan Jim\u00e9nez, set up a platform to test him. He wasn\u2019t tall enough, but his talent was.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
From that moment on, the paddles became Emanuel\u2019s best friends, and little by little he began moving up in level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Every day he would leave school to train with admirable discipline\u2014the same discipline that led him to win local championships, then national ones, and very soon international titles. By the age of 8, he had already become a South American champion, and by the age of 11, he was a world champion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His list of countries visited for competition includes Ecuador, Chile, Puerto Rico, Spain, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Singapore, Jordan, Jerusalem, Austria, Germany, Poland, China, and Belgium.\n\nThis year, he played his first Olympic qualifier for Colombia in Peru, with the dream of soon competing in his first Olympic Games\u2014always accompanied by his parents, who have supported him throughout his journey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Emanuel is fast, agile with the paddle, and at just 14 years old, he already seems invincible. In Portugal, where he currently lives, he trains eight hours a day and studies online for another three hours. His dream is to become an Olympic champion, and he will not rest until he achieves it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Through the ADA Foundation (Friends of Antioquia Sport), Emanuel is one of the athletes supported by Fraternidad Medell\u00edn Foundation. He is a clear example that sports can transform lives, and that effort, dedication, and Fraternidad can always lead us to achieve our dreams.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Emanuel Ot\u00e1lvaro conoci\u00f3 el tenis de mesa en Rionegro, Antioquia, a los 5 a\u00f1os, gracias a que su hermano Federico lo practicaba. Desde el primer momento, su mam\u00e1, Yolanda, supo que Emanuel estaba destinado a cosas m\u00e1s grandes que recoger bolas. El entrenador del Club de Tenis de Mesa, Juan Jim\u00e9nez, le puso una tarima […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":6500,"template":"","tipo-de-contenido":[33],"categoria":[18],"class_list":["post-6492","eventos","type-eventos","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tipo-de-contenido-eventos-noticias","categoria-noticia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fraternidadmedellin.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/eventos\/6492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fraternidadmedellin.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/eventos"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fraternidadmedellin.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/eventos"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fraternidadmedellin.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/eventos\/6492\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6493,"href":"https:\/\/fraternidadmedellin.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/eventos\/6492\/revisions\/6493"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fraternidadmedellin.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fraternidadmedellin.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"tipo-de-contenido","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fraternidadmedellin.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tipo-de-contenido?post=6492"},{"taxonomy":"categoria","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fraternidadmedellin.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categoria?post=6492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}