Paula Leitón is 24 years old and has just won an Olympic gold medal with her water polo team, representing Spain at the Olympic Games. It is not the only medal she has: this one adds to the silver from Tokyo 2020. In addition, in 2016 she became the youngest athlete in the Spanish delegation at just 16 years old. Despite this, some users on social media have ignored her sporting merits and have launched fatphobic attacks on the Catalan, to which she has responded forcefully.
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“I think that people who make these comments think that they are going to hurt people. I know what my body is like, I love it very much, I work on it for what my life is, which is this sport. The comments don’t matter to me at all, I just won an Olympic gold medal, which is the dream I have had since I was a dwarf,” Leitón said on the program En Boca de Todos. Since the Olympics began to be televised, the water polo player has received a large number of derogatory comments about her body.
Leitón plays as a buoy, which is a key position in water polo, as she is the one in charge of shooting at goal. “I am 1.90m tall, water polo in general is a very tough sport. I am not worried at all and if they have to continue with these comments, they should think a little about the people who may be hurt. It doesn’t affect me, but some girls could be affected by these comments,” continued the athlete, who regretted the impact that these comments about people’s physiques can have on young people.
“I can’t say it better, I don’t care about the comments,” she concluded with a laugh on the programme. The Olympic winner celebrated the “luck” that elite athletes have in “having different bodies” in each sport. “It’s a shame that people don’t know how to see it,” she continued. “I’m very proud of myself and my work.”
But it is not only Paula Leitón who has been the target of these attacks: the physique of Croatian water polo player Josip Vrlic, whose team won the silver medal, has also been the focus of criticism.
