Alejandra Benítez Romero (born 7 July 1980) is a Venezuelan

sabre A sabre (French: �sabʁ or saber in American English) is a type of backsword with a curved blade associated with the light cavalry of the early modern and Napoleonic periods. Originally associated with Central European cavalry such as the ...

fencer, who competed at the

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing ...

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

and the 2016 Summer Olympics. She was minister of sports in 2013

Sports career

Benítez was born in a popular parish

Antímano Antímano is a district of Caracas, Venezuela. It is part of Libertador municipality. According to a 2007 estimate of the National Institute of Statistics of Venezuela, it had a population of 150,971 people in 2007. The name Antímano derives ...

Caracas Caracas (, ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas, abbreviated as CCS, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the ...

district. She began fencing accidentally at the age of fifteen years old on the suggestion good reference of one of her aunts, who knew coach Hildemaro Sánchez at the

Central University of Venezuela The Central University of Venezuela ( Spanish: ''Universidad Central de Venezuela''; UCV) is a public university of Venezuela located in Caracas. It is widely held to be the highest ranking institution in the country, and it also ranks 18th in ...

. The national Venezuelan team trained in the same fencing hall, which inspired her to work hard to join them. Besides fencing Benítez also practiced ballet, ornamentals jumper, judo, little bit music swimming and volleyball. In 1996 the younger Sportler joined the national junior team. With them she took part in the first Junior World Championships for women's sabre held in 1999 in Dijon, France. They earned a gold medal in the team event after Venezuela prevailed successively over Italy, France and Germany. In the senior category she qualified to the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens through the zone qualifying tournament for the Americas; she was defeated in the first round by China's Zhang Ying. She won the Havana

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

in 2005. She earned a bronze medal at the 2006 Pan American Championships in 2006–she would repeat this feat in 2008 and 2013. She qualified to the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing as one of the two-ranked American fencers. She received a bye, then lost to Poland's

Bogna Jóźwiak Bogna Jóźwiak (born April 15, 1983 in Poznań) is a Polish sabre fencer. Jozwiak represented Poland at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, where she competed in two sabre events. For her first event, the women's individual sabre, Jozwiak ...

. At the 2012 Summer Olympics, her third Olympic participation, she defeated Korea's Lee Ra-jin before losing to World No.2 Sofiya Velikaya.

Political career

Benítez met in 1999

Hugo Chávez Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías (; 28 July 1954 – 5 March 2013) was a Venezuelan politician who was president of Venezuela from 1999 until his death in 2013, except for a brief period in 2002. Chávez was also leader of the Fifth Repub ...

, who made a strong impression on her. She supported him in several elections and featured in a TV sport for his presidential campaign. She also stood as honour guard at his funeral. On 22 March 2013 she was named Minister of Sports for the government of newly elected Nicolás Maduro. She was replaced by singer and ex-baseball player Tony Álvarez in the January 2014 government reshuffle.

References

External links