Xisela Aranda, half goodbye to sport

In the last game of the season with Tenerife, Xisela Aranda felt “that the phase is closing”. The former seven-time Spanish squash champion, who switched to football four years ago, credits various reasons for reaching that point. “I knew it was over and I felt good about it. I wasn’t sorry, now new beginnings are coming”, explains the 37-year-old from Vigo, who is saying goodbye to sports as a profession, but explains that it will continue, as always, to mark her work and life. since the age of four.

Throughout his sports career, he always went from year to year. And at this moment, faced with new projects that were presented to him, he decided to “take a different path”. I am lucky to dedicate myself to what makes me happy, to the company I have in which I want to invest all my energy, he points out. There were factors such as the fact that the coach he had is not continuing, and when parting with the nets, he pointed out that “when new adventures are not aligned with your own standards, it’s time for other paths”.

She says she is leaving professional sports behind, “satisfied that she gave 100% in everything every day, in every training session”. He does not hesitate to remain positive at every moment, which has always prevailed. “I experienced a very good stage in Tenerife. What the club and I gave ourselves was a lot, and life is phases. I end this with the satisfaction of having given my best version,” he continues.

Aranda points out that sport was a fundamental factor in his life and that it is still present. “Now, it’s like I’m giving back to him what he gave me, but from a different perspective, from an approach that I like,” he says. The company he created in 2021, but in which he has invested much more in recent months, is “committed to demonstrating the transformative power of physical activity in society.” This takes the form of working with businesses, sports teams, education centers or any group of people to “achieve different goals through experiences, events, workshops and training”.

Xisela feels that what she is focusing on now is “putting what she learned” during her sports and business career as she studied business administration and management and worked both for others and for herself. “I want to apply everything I’ve learned to help improve others,” she says. And he states that physical activity is present in everything he does.

He claims that the company name Way of life “says it all”. “Sport is a lifestyle that I have had since I was a child, and I try to transfer it to the business, educational and sports world,” he emphasizes. When he sums up his accounts, he has only good things to say: “I’ve been doing sports since I can remember and I feel happy because of what I’ve experienced in the world of squash, playing in the world and European championships… It’s been wonderful”, he appreciates his first sports stage .

Football appeared “accidentally” and fulfilled another dream that he did not think he would have the chance to achieve. “I came from an individual sport, and ended up in a team sport. What he gave me is also beautiful,” he explains. Do not forget that these are “two completely different disciplines” that “raised him as a person”, except that he believes that they give him credibility for what he is doing now. “If I talk to a sports team about related aspects, I have lived it, it’s not just about training or learning,” he appreciates.