Triple jump champion tired of 'Plastic Brit' label
World indoor champion Yamile Aldama hopes people will stop talking about 'Plastic Brit' as she targets further glory at this summer's Olympics.
Aldama, who has previously competed for Cuba and Sudan, won gold in Istanbul this week with a brilliant jump of 14.82 metres in the women's triple jump.
The 39-year-old has come a long way to reach this point, having originally applied for a British passport more than a decade ago after meeting and marrying Andrew Dodds, a Scot studying Spanish in Havana.
The pair planned to get married in the summer of 2001, but Aldama discovered she was pregnant so they moved the wedding forward to April and Aldama agreed to move to England and, in her words "start all over again."
They settled in east London but in 2002 Dodds was arrested after the police discovered 100kg of heroin at a warehouse rented in his name in Barking. He was later sentenced to 15 years in prison but was released in 2009 and the pair have since had a second child together.
Missed out
While her passport application stalled, she missed the 2003 World Championships in Paris while ranked world number one because she had no country to compete for.
It was then she was approached by Sudan and opted to compete for them in the 2004 Olympics, and it was not until November 2010 that she was finally cleared to compete for Britain after persuading Sudan to release her.
Asked if she hoped the public would embrace her fully, Aldama said: "I hope so. But it's not only because of the medal.
"I'm here for good so hopefully people will stop talking about Plastic Brit and this and that. Because there's different cases. My case, I don't think, is a case."
The "Plastic Brits" issue was reignited this week when Michigan-born Tiffany Porter was surprisingly named team captain for the World Indoor Championships, with the likes of long jumper Shara Proctor and 400m runner Shana Cox accused of only switching allegiance to gain access to Lottery funding and world class medical support through UK Athletics.
That is not an accusation that could be levelled at Aldama, who was almost moved to tears by her welcome back at the team hotel on Saturday evening after her win.
"That was the best bit," she said. "They were throwing me in the air and I was very close to tears, but it's not easy for me to cry. Maybe inside."
Form
Aldama had initially planned to retire after the Olympics in her adopted home city - she lives in Wembley and can see the stadium from her house - but that may change following her superb form this year.
Her long-time coach Frank Attoh believes she is "not normal" and feels a medal in London is certainly possible if she can get close to the 15m barrier.
"She is special and you only get that once in a lifetime," Attoh said. "To be jumping like she is at her age is amazing. I don't know how she does it.
"The day after she's given birth (to her second son), I go to the hospital and she's holding a bottle full of sand and doing bicep curls! That cannot be normal. That's the person she is. She's a special, special person."
Already Britain's oldest ever gold medallist at a global championship, Aldama will turn 40 on August 14, two days after the Olympics ends and nine days after the triple jump final.
"It's not long to go until I'm 40," Aldama added. "I expect to be the same. If Frank says (I can win a medal) it's possible. If he says jump, I jump."