The final day of the World Championships in Santiago not only featured the emotional moment of Elia Viviani’s triumphant retirement or Harrie Lavreysen’s incredible fourth gold medal at a single World Championship.
In fact, that third moment was perhaps even more spectacular, judging by the gestures and shouts of unrestrained joy from Yareli Acevedo, the second Mexican world champion in history, exactly 24 years after her fellow Mexican, Nancy Llarely Contreras, achieved the same feat in the 500 meters—a coincidence of names that is no accident.
Yareli’s parents decided to name her after the great Mexican champion, although changing the initial letter and the final vowel, just a few months before Contreras achieved that success that defined her career.
“Twenty-four years ago, she became world champion, and I was just born. She has been an example to me, and thanks to my parents, I have her name. Today, I repeat history,” she declared emotionally after her victory, which she dedicated to her.
“My family is my everything. They haven’t been able to attend any of my competitions because they spend all day working so that I can eat, so that I can have the best bike and compete in these kinds of events. They work every day so that I can go to all my training sessions, and now they are world champions too.”
Her parents owned a bicycle shop, so her cycling destiny was ‘set,’ starting to compete at eleven years old, although she has always admitted that “I didn’t like the initial impact of cycling, but rather the prizes they gave. As children, they gave toy prizes, so the better the venue, the bigger the prize.” However, her talent served her well throughout her career, making her the leading figure in Mexican women’s cycling.
Second in the world rankings
And this year, the culmination of her career. First at the Nations Cup in Konya, with gold in the elimination race and sixth place in the omnium; then in Asunción, where she became a triple Pan American champion in the scratch race, elimination race, and omnium.
And now at the World Championships—where she emerges as the second-ranked cyclist in the world in the road race rankings, 700 points behind leader Anita Yvonne Stenberg—and where she couldn’t shine in the elimination race, but had already shown promise with fifth place in the omnium, before achieving that historic gold in the points race.
“In the final laps, I had no strength left. But the group could have stopped because they were fighting for the medals. So, you either take risks or you don’t win anything. I think everyone back in Mexico was sending me a lot of encouragement, and thanks to all the people who support me, I was able to win this medal,” said Acevedo, who was also happy that “no one had an accident. I think I have a lot of respect for my teammates, and they don’t deserve to fall. We know we race like crazy and that it’s all or nothing, but thank God no one fell, and I took the victory.”
The goal now is the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games. “Today I know it’s very possible, just like I knew I was capable of winning a gold medal at this World Championship, and I was going for it all, and I think that willpower is what defines me.
“Los Angeles is one of my favorite cities; I think it’s a place where I would like to live. And well, it’s not just my dream, but my family’s too.” And not just mine, every athlete dreams of winning an Olympic medal.” The question now is whether it will be a solo effort, or if Mexico will opt for the madison or even the quartet, given the potential of other riders like Sofia Arreola, Lizbeth Salazar, Antonieta Gaxiola, and Victoria Velasco.
Edmundo Alpízar Basurto is her coach, who highlights the cyclist’s strategic, technical, and physical capabilities, noting that “she is growing a lot in terms of self-confidence, strategy, and strength,” while the cyclist herself believes that “after 2024, life took a complete turn and gave me a lot of emotional and physical maturity. It made me change many aspects of my life, and today, thank God, ten years of hard work have paid off,” concluding