18 years ago, Ana Guevara won the silver medal in the 400 meters flat race at the 2004 Athens Olympics

This is considered as the best result of her sports career, overshadowing the world title she won in the 2003 Paris edition.

"The Olympic Games place you in the history of sports worldwide. The World Championships are important but they happen every two years and things can change quickly, and the dynamics are very different, while the Olympic Games have that unique magic of being the biggest event, and of course Athens holds all this emotion and enthusiasm from years of dedication and the dream, and it finally paid off in winning the medal for Mexico," declared Guevara.

On August 24, 2004, the former sprinter finished in second place with a time of 49.96 seconds, however, she considers that silver medal as if it were gold due to the obstacles she faced before competing.

"I have always said that for that process and that medal, I graduated as an athlete, and also as a human being in many aspects, because it challenged me and forced me to do things that I never thought I had to do. Before that medal, everything was relatively easy but the one in Athens was the one that complicated me the most, the one that challenged me the most, and the one that made me think differently about how to act on the track and that in the end turned out to be silver but for me, it is worth gold. One of the obstacles was the injury, always being on edge that the Achilles tendon could tear, and playing with the training loads to not jeopardize participation, and also the psychological pressure of being a clear favorite to win the medal," she mentioned.

Even Ana confesses that this achievement was the only occasion that she felt a rush of emotions. "That's when it finally hit me, as it was the first time that I cried on the podium, and right at that moment, it was like rewinding the tape and realizing what I had done."

The first place was taken by the Bahamian athlete Tonique Williams with a time of 49.41 seconds, and she was an athlete with whom Ana Guevara had a great rivalry that year.

"A rivalry that arose that year because if we remember, the difference in victory at the World Championships in Paris was very marked, but unfortunately, this discomfort in the Achilles tendon arrived, which prevented me from arriving in the same condition as in 2003," Guevara mentioned, who won the gold medal in that World Championship while Tonique finished fifth.

Finally, Guevara does not regret having set aside one of the sports that she was also passionate about, such as basketball.

"In my longing to be a basketball player, I wanted to reach the WNBA, and just when I started running, that league was born, but I had to decide whether to go to the Olympic Games or dedicate myself to basketball, but the great heroes say that there are no 'what ifs' and that the past cannot be changed because it doesn't exist. The curious fact is that my coach told me that I was wrong about the sport, that running was my thing, but I continued insisting on playing basketball, and time proved that when I tried it, good results came quickly, such as becoming the national champion," she pointed out.