The incredible story of the Galician Ada Iglesias, the albino queen of Spanish speed

Adiaratou Iglesias (Bamako, Mali, 1999) was born with albinisma disorder caused by mutations in various genes that leads to a reduction or complete absence of the melanin pigment in the eyes, skin and hair and that occasionally also affects vision, as in his case, with less than 20% visual ability.

In Mali, they believe that albinism is bad luck if you are alive, but good luck if you are dead. In fact, there are people who go out on chasing albinos to kill or cut off a limb and keep it as a good luck charm.

Because of this fear, her life was practically reduced to staying at home and not going out as a child. At home, his family is Muslim. His father has three wives, and his mother, a deaf mute, is the youngest of them and had nine children.

Considering the situation in Mali, his parents’ decision was send her to Spain at the age of eleven, more precisely in Logroño, where one of his half-brothers lived. That change did not go well and he ended up in a child welfare center where he met the person who would change his life, Maria Lina Iglesias. A teacher in Lugo, who decided to adopt her.

He went to live with her in Lugo, joined the athletics club, a sport he learned about at the age of seven on a newspaper. His qualities did not go unnoticed to the extent that they reached over time won the championship of Galicia in athletics twice at 100 and 200 meters compared to athletes without disabilities.

His progress on the track was spectacular. Lina Iglesias always believed in her and encouraged her to follow her sports dreams. In it At the World Championships in Dubai 2019, she was the runner-up in the 100 and 200 meters; In 2021, at the European Championship in Bydgoszcz (Poland), she was declared a double continental champion at both distances, and he rounded off the year with gold medal at the Paralympic Games in Tokyo in the discipline T13 at 100 meters.

Silver medal for Adiaratou Iglesias! 🥈

A very close race at 100 m. T13 decided by thousands. 💠ðŸ’

📌 Tomorrow at 10 am for 200 pic.twitter.com/CDy56eeMGx

— Spanish Paralympic Committee (@Paralimpicos) July 10, 2023

After the experience in the Japanese city of Adiaratou, always with his dreadlocks and his unmistakable glasses, he made a radical decision in his personal life. He moved to Madrid. He did this to study physiotherapy at ONCE.

The change from Lugo to Madrid was not easy, and it was not easy to combine it with the high performance required by athletics. Because of this, he put physiotherapy on hold and, while he trains and competes, now study of Early Education in a mixed way.

All this while keeping alive the dream of returning to Paris in the summer of 2024, a city where only a few thousandths prevented her from being declared world champion in 2023. Azerbaijan’s Lamiya Valiyeva won the gold, but Adiaratou Iglesias hopes to get her revenge at the Games, a date marked in red on her calendar. In addition, she hopes to do it in the stands with Lina, for her the most special person, since in Tokyo, in the midst of the pandemic, the absence of the audience marked the event.