Several lucky bracelets and an image of a saint gifted by a stranger as she traveled to London accompanied Aida Roman on her Olympic journey in 2012. The result of that trip is one most of us know: individual silver in front of a roaring Lord’s crowd.
Aida keeps those charms safely at home in Mexico, for fear of losing that which brought her Olympic success. This year, she’s starting a new collection of lucky bracelets instead.
However, Aida doesn’t place the responsibility of her performance purely on what’s around her wrist. “In the end, the responsibility for good shooting does not lay on the lucky charms, but on myself and my bow.”
“I feel equally as strong technically as mentally,” she adds.
Hailing from Mexico City, Aida was a psychology student until recently – when she put University on hold to focus on her athletic career. She’s still active in the field, though – she jokes: Her first ever patient being herself. The psychology studies have helped Aida better understand her emotions and handle relationships within a team.
So far in Nimes, the 25-year-old’s mental game has been on point. Best over the ranking round, she won all her elimination matches as well – and is on track for her first big stage individual medal since London 2012.
Though the emotions of past victories may be stuck in her mind, Aida is clearly focused on the here and now: “I take every competition separately, without putting pressure on myself because of what happened earlier in my career.”
“In every event, there is room to learn and gain new experience,” she concludes. She’ll have another of those learning opportunities tomorrow, when she faces the Ukraine’s Anastasia Pavlova in the Nimes 2014 semifinals.
