2 Yucatán Gymnasts Bring Home Trampoline Medals

Two Yucatecan gymnasts returned from the Central American and Caribbean Games in Santo Domingo with three medals between them, cementing the state’s status as one of Mexico’s top trampoline gymnastics programs.

Patricia Núñez won bronze in the individual event and gold in synchronized trampoline, pairing with Jalisco’s Dafne Navarro, while Elías Carballo took silver in the men’s individual competition. Their coach, José Luis Núñez García, said the results reflect Yucatán’s growing standing nationally.

“Today, the national team is made up of Jalisco and Yucatán, in both women’s and men’s competition,” he said. “That says a lot about what Yucatán is doing in trampoline gymnastics.”

For Núñez, 27, who has practiced trampoline since age six, the Santo Domingo results marked the best showing of her career given the level of competition. She and her partner had actually qualified first for the mixed synchronized final, but a fractured toe, her first serious injury in years of competing, forced her to withdraw. The substitute Mexican pair went on to win silver in her place.

“It was a bit discouraging, what happened to us, but these things happen,” Núñez said. She’s now recovering with an eye on the World Championships in Nanjing, China, this November, and hopes to resume jumping by September 8.

Carballo, 19, competing in his first Central American Games, called his silver medal the biggest achievement of his career so far, though he said he’d hoped to compete for gold.

“It’s just the beginning of my path with the national team,” he said.

Behind both athletes is a program that traces back 25 years to when Núñez García joined Yucatán’s state sports institute, known as IDEY. Trained as an acrobat in Cuba, he originally coached diving before taking on trampoline gymnastics as well, eventually choosing to focus on the discipline full time. He joined the national coaching staff in 2007.

Since then, Yucatán has placed as many as 11 gymnasts on the national team across age categories and won five national championship titles, along with three national sports merit awards. Núñez García has been named national coach of the year three times.

Training at the elite level runs four to six hours a day, including weekends, while athletes also keep up with school. Núñez García said the program’s goal extends beyond medals. “We don’t just raise gymnasts, we raise human beings,” he said. “The gymnast is part of the human being.” Yucatán’s youth sports programs have produced strong results across multiple disciplines in recent competitions.

FAST FACTS

• Patricia Núñez: bronze, individual trampoline; gold, synchronized trampoline
• Elías Carballo: silver, individual trampoline, in his Games debut
• Yucatán and Jalisco are Mexico’s top trampoline states
• Program at IDEY has run for 25 years under coach José Luis Núñez García
• Núñez targets the November World Championships in Nanjing, China

With reporting from La Jornada Maya