One of the 32 medals that “Team Peru” won at the 2023 Pan American Games was thanks to him Nilton Soto, who won bronze in Greco-Roman wrestling. The athlete, who won his second medal at the Pan American Games after finishing in the same place in Lima in 2019, admitted that he works hard and dreams of reaching the Olympics. OO. of Paris 2024. In an interview for La República, Soto revealed details of his career, personal life and ambitions.
Nilton Soto won his second medal at the 2023 Pan American Games in Santiago. Photo: Team Peru
“You come from a family of athletes and fighters. What was it like growing up in that environment?”
“At first I didn’t like wrestling, I did it from a very young age, when I was 7 or 8 years old, but I didn’t particularly like it.” I said to my father: “I don’t like fighting, can you understand me?” ?” And he told me, “Well, if you don’t like it, what are we going to do?” When I was 11 or 12 years old, I only studied in the morning and didn’t do anything in the afternoon, so my dad told me: Either you study or you are training. So I started training without any commitment, entered a tournament and they beat me. I was very naughty and said that he can’t beat me. I started training with the desire to learn how to beat this boy. I went to the next tournament, I beat him and another boy beat me. There I said that I can’t train to beat anyone, I have to train to beat everyone to become a champion. I started training, winning, and I got the hang of it until I made the national team, had my first trip and, well, everything. Thanks to this we have what we have today.
“What was that phase like before you played football? At what point did you stop?”
-I wanted to be an archer. I really liked covering up. Sometimes he played to get out of the gate a little. He did both. I wanted to do combat training on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and then archery on Tuesday and Thursday. But when I started training to be a champion, I went to archery class once a week, other times I didn’t go at all. I watch football when Peru plays, I’m there anyway and watch closely. If I had to choose a team it would be Alianza Lima, but it’s not that I’m behind, it’s because my family is from Alianza.
“You have achieved several successes in your career, most recently the bronze medal in Santiago 2023. What do you think all these triumphs are due to?”
“I’ve always said it, I think discipline is something important. I don’t consider myself a talented person, but rather a disciplined person who does things when he has to do them, who does what most people don’t want to do and who is ready for great things, but I believe that everything so is based on discipline. I’ve always appreciated that. I think that this has borne fruit, maybe not always, but little by little it is improving and that is reflected today.
Podium in Greco-Roman wrestling -67 kg: Julián Horta with silver, Luis Orta with gold and Nilton Soto with bronze. Photo: Santiago 2023
“You have to have a well-established schedule. When do you get up?
“Now that I’m in a different phase of my education, I’m also at university and have a young son. I have to get up at 5am to train, I return home to take my son to school and then go to study, and I go to my second training in the afternoon, then I come home in the evening. That’s how it is most days.
“How have you managed your career during the pandemic?
“The pandemic caught us in Canada, precisely to qualify for Tokyo we had to stay there for 15 days, there were no planes to get there because the airport was closed. When I arrived here we didn’t really know what was going to happen, we weren’t at home, you couldn’t even go running back then, none of that was allowed, I didn’t have any equipment at home to train. So I said I can’t do anything, we don’t know how long this will take. I’ve started implementing a few things, weights and leagues to work on at home. Then my association decided to conduct the training via Zoom and we started. I tried to complete both of my training sessions. If they were done in the afternoon, I would do mine in the morning. Maybe I had a plan and tried to pay a little attention to my diet, because in the pandemic everyone became a cook, a pastry chef… that’s what they had to do. We had to adapt to the situation, […] When we got our utensils we grabbed bags of rice to complete the weight as some didn’t have them and I locked myself in.
Nilton Soto won a bronze medal in Lima in 2019. Photo: Legado
“During the pandemic, there were athletes who no longer received support from the PAD. Was that the case for you?
-No, they did not change my category because the medal for Lima 2019 had already been officially announced and it was up to me to collect my entire salary for this set period.
– Do you do any activity parallel to the struggle for income?
“Yes, I want to complete my studies (physical education). I know that sports are not forever, as cruel as it may sound, unfortunately sports are hypocritical, because God forbid you can get a very serious injury for which you have to stop. Sport is nice at this time, but just as you are up, you can also be down; You can’t rely on that alone. In my case, I have a small clothing store with my wife and another one that I’m opening with a friend for sporting goods. So I have two indirect incomes because it is money that I don’t use, that is there, that is saved, and I earn my living through sport because that is what I dedicate myself to; But if at some point I decide to retire, I know that I have support, I know that I have these two companies or mini-businesses that will help me in one way or another and also allow me to have peace of mind train. Sometimes training with the thought that I have to get this medal to keep my salary because that’s all I live on is tiring, it’s complicated and as a father I can understand it because I’ve been through it at some point.
“Can you make a living from sport in Peru?”
-NO. Because if you could live sport, you wouldn’t have had these two companies. I think that as a country we lack sports culture. People are focusing a lot more on football and volleyball and I think there should be a mass expansion of the sports. Not only wrestling, but also tennis, table tennis, all sports that in some ways bring a lot of results to the country and are not so valued by private companies. Let them realize that we as athletes also achieve good results and that with more support the country could become much bigger and increase its sporting level. They must also have a sports ministry. I don’t think I could make a living from sport. (The PAD) is not a salary, they themselves call it “Athlete Support” and since it is support you are not entitled to it. There is also no specific date for receiving your salary. So if you only devote yourself to this, you won’t make ends meet. No, you couldn’t live on that alone.
“Well-known was the case of Eriberto Gutiérrez, bronze medalist in canoeing, who refused the award of the mayor of Abancay because he had asked for support at the time and was rejected. What do you think of this campaign?
“I didn’t want to comment at the time because I didn’t really know what had happened. At first I said, “Wow, why like that? He would have just said he didn’t want to go and that was it.” From then on I understood a little more and said that I would have done it too, because as far as I know he went looking for the mayor, asked for meetings and told him that he couldn’t do it, that he wasn’t there, he wasn’t there at that moment, he was busy. After that, the desire to get into the car seems wrong, very wrong.
“What are your next challenges? Where will you compete?”
“The closest event for me is the Pre-Olympics in Acapulco. Let’s hope to qualify, and if things don’t go well there, we still have the last chance, which is in May, the World Qualifier, which is coming up.” Turkey. We focus on improving the details, the negative technical aspects we had in the games and on significantly improving the strength work. There’s still a little time left and we’ll make the most of it.
“What dream do you have in sports?
“Go to the Olympics and get a medal for the country. I know that sounds a bit far away because going to a JJ is difficult. OO., maybe not so much because of us, but because of the lack of education system we have in sports. I don’t think it’s impossible, I think it’s there and if you have the conditions, the support and the facilities to get there, I think it can be achieved. We are a country that has very great athletes that we didn’t appreciate, that we lost along the way because we didn’t give them a little more support. I think a medal is not far away and we have now seen in Santiago that we have done better than in other editions of the Pan American Games outside Lima.
-How do you see yourself in 10 years?
“I’m still involved in fighting and have focused more on my career.” I want to become a wrestling coach, contribute a little to my sport and improve it, train children and then move forward. I want to ensure that my sport achieves better results worldwide.