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Santiago Lange He is 59 years old and was the proud standard-bearer of the Argentine delegation at the opening ceremony of Tokyo 2020, the Olympic Games that began today, a year after its original date due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Santiago carried the flag with Cecilia Carranza Saroli, the duo that won the gold medal in Rio 2016. And this time, the flag bearers want to repeat the feat. In the case of Santiago, who is already a grandfather, it will be his seventh time in an olympic game.
In 2016 he was not only the oldest sailor to compete in the Rio Olympics, but he also did so operated for lung cancer, a disease that he overcame a few months before the competition. “The nine months after the surgery until Rio 2016, required the greatest effort of my sports career,” said Lange. “The medal race sums up everything that has been my life, in 20 minutes. Adversities, get up and move on ”.
While he was training to perform at Rio 2016, the athlete received the diagnosis and far from being discouraged, he underwent a operation where a part of the left lung was removed. As soon as he was able to play sports again, Lange and his partner went out to the river again to train in the Nacra 17 sailing class, with which they would win gold a few months later. Later, he was distinguished as the Sailor of the Year by the International Yachting Federation.
In his book “Wind, the journey of my life”, which was published a few months ago, Lange talks about cancer, a disease that his sister Inés also suffered at the same time. “We were two survivors fresh out of the hell of operating rooms and cancer – she without hair, me without voice – and we embraced each other with relief”, wrote the athlete, who relates that Inés had breast cancer and that in 2015 they were able to hug, she with a ticket to Italy in hand and he already with one foot in Rio.
According to the page of the Argentine Olympic Committee, Lange’s passion for sailing began when he was 6 years old, following in the footsteps of his father, who was also a sailor and had competed in the 1952 Helsinki Olympic Games. The first time that Lange represented Argentina in the Olympic Games was in Seoul 1988, and then won the bronze medal in Athens 2004 and in Beijing 2008. Santiago has passed on his love for the sport to his family and two of his sons, Yago and Klaus, also competed in Rio 2016.
During the pandemic, Santiago became the grandfather of Silvestre, lost a brother-in-law and spent 10 of the twelve months away from home, training for these Olympic games. “I experienced the pandemic from many sides, like everyone else. I lived it up close emotionally and with my family. I lost a brother-in-law and my mother is in a residence, so I couldn’t see her during the little time I was in Buenos Aires. Very hard“, he told Clarín.
Resilient, Santiago says he feels privileged to be able to go out to train every day. “I do it because I like it. I love it. Obviously it is very hard to be a year away from your home, but I love what I do. It is my own decision to be here and I have the opportunity to do so ”, he told the aforementioned media.
However, the long periods away from family squeeze her heart. “When I had to go back to Europe to prepare, I told Klaus and his wife when I said goodbye to Silvestre that I felt the same way I felt when I said goodbye to my children before traveling to a tournament. It is very hard. Your heart breaks. I am distracted by my passion, but I keep that in one place. I happily enjoyed the little time I had to spend with him, ”he revealed in the same interview.
More information at parati.com.ar
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