Daniela Larreal

Daniela Larreal

Larreal in 2011
Personal information
Full name	Daniela Greluis Larreal Chirinos
Born	(1973-10-02)2 October 1973[a] Maracaibo, Venezuela
Died	11 August 2024(2024-08-11) (aged 50)[b] Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S.
Team information
Discipline	Road
Role	Rider
Rider type	Sprinter
Professional team
1993–1996	Club Café Fortaleza
Medal record Women's track cycling Representing  Venezuela UCI Track Cycling World Cup 1996 Overall Ranking Points race 2003 Overall Ranking Sprint 2003 Overall Ranking Keirin Pan American Games 2011 Guadalajara Keirin 2011 Guadalajara Team sprint 2003 Santo Domingo Sprint 2003 Santo Domingo Keirin 2011 Guadalajara Sprint Pan American Cycling Championships 1992 Quito Sprint 1997 Cali Sprint 2005 Mar del Plata Keirin 2012 Mar del Plata Team sprint 1997 Cali 500m 2010 Aguascalientes Keirin 2011 Medellin Team sprint 2014 Aguascalientes Team sprint 2010 Aguascalientes Sprint 2011 Medellin Sprint 2014 Aguascalientes Keirin 2014 Aguascalientes Sprint South American Games 2014 Santiago Sprint 2014 Santiago Team sprint 2014 Santiago Keirin Central American and Caribbean Games 1998 Maracaibo Sprint 2002 San Salvador Sprint 2002 San Salvador Keirin 2002 San Salvador Scratch 2010 Mayagüez Sprint 2010 Mayagüez 500m Time trial 2010 Mayagüez Keirin 2010 Mayagüez Team sprint 1990 Mexico City Sprint 1993 Ponce Sprint 1993 Ponce Points race 1998 Maracaibo 500m Time trial 2002 San Salvador 500m Time trial 1998 Maracaibo Points race

Daniela Greluis Larreal Chirinos (2 October 1973 – 11 August 2024)^[3] was a Venezuelan track cyclist – a five-time Olympian considered one of Venezuela's most important sportspeople and the leading Venezuelan cyclist for over two decades.^[4][5][6][7] She had a brief road cycling career in the 1990s, and set the Olympic record for women's track time trial in 2000. She spent the last eight years of her life in exile.

Competing mainly in American competitions, she achieved over 35 international medals in her career; there were 24 years between her first and last podium finishes. She also raced in the UCI Track Cycling World Cup, medalling in various stages. In the later years of her career, Venezuela fell into a state of crisis, with Larreal critical of corruption among sporting bodies. Under the presidency of Nicolás Maduro, Larreal became more widely critical of how her country was run. Her activism saw her forced into exile in the United States, where she joined the Venezuelan political opposition.

Daniela Greluis Larreal Chirinos was born on 2 October 1973 in Maracaibo, Zulia, Venezuela, the daughter of cyclist Daniel Larreal,^[8][9] who won a silver medal at the 1971 Pan American Games^[10] and was considered the best cyclist in Venezuelan history.^[11] She was also of indigenous race.^[12] Her father introduced her to cycling;^[13] she was already fast on a velodrome track when young^[14] and began competing when she was 8, representing the Capital District in the 1986 youth Vuelta de Lara.^[8] She preferred swimming as a child and was the Venezuelan junior freestyle swimming champion over both 50m and 100m when she was 13. She then began training seriously in track cycling in 1989.^[15] At one point, Larreal began studying police science but put this aside to focus on cycling.^[15] She later completed a degree in physical education in Venezuela,^[16] having studied alongside her career.^[5] When she moved to the United States, she started a two-year course for the equivalent qualification.^[17]

Like other successful athletes, the Venezuelan regime awarded Larreal with a house and car; after leaving the country, Larreal revealed to Spanish media that such houses were being invaded by squatters due to the crisis in Venezuela, and the cars were cheap models that she could cycle faster than.^[18]

Larreal's first championship was the 1990 Central American and Caribbean Games,^[9] where she was the only female track cyclist from Venezuela to compete^[19]: 474 and won the silver medal in the sprint.^{[9][19]: 486–487} Still a teenager, she next competed at the VIII National Youth Games held in Maracaibo in 1991, winning two gold medals, for sprint and pursuit. Larreal then achieved her first international gold medal at the 1992 Pan American Track Championships in Quito, doing so by setting a new championship record of 13.619 seconds in the individual sprint. The placement qualified her to compete at the 1992 Summer Olympics, where she went out in the second round repechage.^[8] She went on to compete at five different Olympic Games, representing Venezuela at the 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, and 2012 Summer Olympics and earning four Olympic diplomas.^[20][10] Among Venezuelan athletes, others who have competed at five Olympics are Fabiola Ramos (1996 through 2012) and Rubén Limardo (2008 through 2024).^[21]

After her debut Olympics in Barcelona, Larreal began training and racing in Spain with a road racing team (as non-Spanish cyclists could not compete on the track) sponsored by Café Fortaleza; she won three golds, six silvers, and eight bronzes there. In 1993, she won two silver medals at the 1993 Central American and Caribbean Games, in the sprint and points race. She returned to national competition in 1996, representing Lara and taking gold in the sprint trials. Larreal also had success in the 1996 UCI Track Cycling World Cup Classics, with podium finishes in the stages at Cali and Havana, and an overall placement as world champion in the points race. Her results placed Venezuela 11th of the 328 nations involved.^[8][22][23] Considered a "top contender" to earn an Olympic medal for Venezuela due to her results,^[24] she again had a disappointing Olympic Games in 1996, being eliminated in the same round of the sprint as in 1992^[25] and taking no points in the points race (placing 15th, the highest of the cyclists without points, on ranking).^[26] She saw success in more stages of the 1997 UCI Track Cycling World Cup Classics and, at the 1998 Central American and Caribbean Games hosted in Maracaibo, set a new flying 200m championship record of 12.13; as the organisers did not use approved electronic timing devices, times set at the event were not recognised. She won the 200m sprint and took silver in the 500m.^[8]

Larreal was the first holder of the Olympic record for women's track time trial, with a time of 35.728 in 2000; she ultimately finished tenth, with four other cyclists achieving a new Olympic record in the event.^[27][28] She picked up her first Olympic diploma in 2000, coming eighth in the sprint.^[29] Larreal came to renown across South America in 2001, when she won three gold medals (including the elimination race) at the 2001 Bolivarian Games, with the cycling events taking place in Quito. Ecuadorian newspaper La Hora dubbed her the "queen of speed" for her success and monopolization of attention during the championship.^[15] This included setting a new Bolivarian record in the 200m, of 10.905, on 8 September 2001.^[30][31] Larreal again won three gold medals in one championship at the 2002 Central American and Caribbean Games, including defeating main rival Nancy Contreras in the sprint.^[32]

In January 2003, Larreal began focused training for the 2004 Olympics at a centre in Switzerland.^[33] She had already secured qualification to the Olympics by June 2004, before the Venezuela-hosted 2004 Pan American Cycling Championships which would select the remaining American quota.^[34] At the 2004 Olympics she achieved an Olympic diploma. During the classification race for fifth through eighth places of the sprint competition at the 2004 Olympics, Larreal finished behind race winner Natallia Tsylinskaya of Belarus but was also judged to have cycled within the inner lane and impeded Tsylinskaya. Larreal was disqualified and handed automatic eighth place as bottom of the athletes who made it to the quarterfinals.^[35][33] Larreal said the decision was unjust as she did not enter the lane intentionally but had been forced into it to avoid other cyclists. She also reflected that she was proud to be one of the eight best in the world, especially against cyclists with better resources.^[33]

Larreal then won four gold medals at the 2005 Bolivarian Games.^[36] She had said at the 2004 Olympics that she would not aim for the 2008 Summer Olympics, that as she was already 30 years old she probably only had a year or two of competitive cycling left.^[33] She later did aspire to the 2008 Olympics but suffered a broken femur and missed the Games, which again made her consider ending her career; instead she returned to smaller championships in 2009. She said ahead of the 2009 Bolivarian Games that she wanted to break the world record for 200m there, having come close previously.^[36]

Larreal's absence from larger American competitions had led to the Cuban Lisandra Guerra becoming dominant in the sprint in 2009, something Guerra reaffirmed after Larreal's return by taking four golds at the 2010 Pan American Cycling Championships, leaving Larreal to win bronze in the sprint (Diana García completed the podium).^[37] Later in 2010, Larreal won four golds at the 2010 Central American and Caribbean Games.^[38] She then won two golds at the 2011 Pan American Games,^[39] setting a new Pan American record for 200m with a time of 10.995 in the qualification round,^[40] and successive new Pan American records (with teammate Mariaesthela Vilera) for team sprint in qualification (33.854) and the final (33.611).^[41][42][43] At the end of 2011, Larreal was awarded the Athlete of the Year Award [es] by the Venezuelan Sports Journalists' Association.^[44]

She announced beforehand that she would retire after the 2012 Olympic Games, choosing the Olympics as a stage "to say goodbye to the track."^[45] There, she competed in the team and individual sprints,^[46][47] and the keirin,^[48] earning two Olympic diplomas.^[49] She finished last in her race of the second round of the keirin, not qualifying for the final, and then came third in the classification race for seventh through twelfth places, originally coming ninth overall.^[45] In 2016, the Russian cyclist who came eighth was retroactively disqualified for doping,^[50] with eighth place and the Olympic diploma reallocated to Larreal in 2020.^[51] The 2012 Games was the first time the Olympic women's team sprint was contested; Larreal and Vilera won the first heat in a time of 34.320, meaning they briefly and unofficially held the Olympic record in women's team sprint. The pair ultimately placed seventh.^[52]

Having retired after the 2012 Olympics, Larreal returned to competing in early 2014 "out of pure love for her country".^[53] The results in sprint cycling from other Venezuelans were of a lower standard and she wanted to inspire another generation of track cyclists. In the three women's track cycling events at the 2014 South American Games, Larreal won two golds and a silver. Speaking to Diario Panorama at the time, she called for the removal of corruption in Venezuelan sport as a way of helping athletes improve.^[53] Larreal was preparing to compete at the 2016 Summer Olympics when the Venezuelan Cycling Federation, which was run by the government and which she had criticised for not giving athletes their assigned funding, refused to register her at qualifying events. She then complained about this, which led to threats from officials and the Federation trying to confiscate her passport. On one occasion, when she was driving to visit her father, two trucks tried to force her off the road before she evaded them – her father then told her she had to leave the country.^[17]

Larreal first criticised the Venezuelan government in 2012, under Hugo Chávez and then-Minister for Sports Héctor Rodríguez, for irregularities in state funding of sports – at this point, specifically accusing them of sponsoring a motor sport athlete who did not exist in order to take foreign currency out of Venezuela.^[17] Larreal had openly been a supporter of Chávez's political ideology.^[54] In 2001 she had criticized his government for only providing support to athletes at the last minute, after it was most necessary,^[15] then in 2004 she had praised Chávez for heavily funding and promoting sports in Venezuela in the prior few years.^[33]

After the death of Hugo Chávez in 2013, with Nicolás Maduro inheriting the leadership of Venezuela, Larreal further accused the Ministry of Sports of widespread corruption,^[55] saying Maduro treated the department as a source of petty cash^[17] and that various officials were implicated in corruption when allocating resources.^[18] Her main criticism remained that officials within Venezuelan sport abused their positions to steal federal money, rather than invest in sports, and she continued to call for audits. She later alleged that the Venezuelan government used sports to traffic drugs and dirty money.^[54] Larreal was a vocal critic of the presidency of Nicolás Maduro,^[20] which she called a dictatorship,^[16] and became an activist for democracy.^[55] She joined Venezuelan opposition political party Popular Will in 2016;^[56] discussing her political affiliation, she said "it's not a secret to anyone that I was chavista, but Chávez is dead".^[54]

Her political activism saw Larreal receive death threats in Venezuela and she was forced into exile and banned from entering Venezuela in 2016,^[57] seeking political asylum in the United States.^[58][16] At this point, chavista media in Venezuela tried to villainise her, saying that she had used $2 million of sports funding to open two companies in the United States; she had no companies and worked menial jobs.^[18] Larreal also stated that the Ministry of Sports had forced other cyclists to formally denounce her,^[5][17] but that her teammates had privately supported her.^[17] In the United States, Larreal continued promoting opposition to Maduro.^[55] She joined the Vente Venezuela political party in 2018,^[59][14] with other Venezuelan athletes Borman Angulo and Freiber Zerpa.^[60] She was still associated with Vente Venezuela at the time of her death, having in August 2024 supported María Corina Machado^[16][20] and posted on social media about the 2024 Venezuelan presidential election, political crisis and protests.^[55]

Larreal lived in Miami in 2016, where she drove an Uber, using what she earned to fund her education and send medicine and food packages to her father, though these were often confiscated by the Venezuelan regime.^[18][17] She later worked at a hotel in Las Vegas,^[20] with Fox Sports reporting she was a waitress there.^[61]

On 12 August 2024, Larreal was declared missing after failing to turn up for work.^[20] A friend then asked the police to conduct a welfare check, which they did on the afternoon of 15 August,^[62] when she was found dead at her apartment in Las Vegas at the age of 50.^[20] A preliminary autopsy said she died of asphyxia after choking on food on 11 August 2024,^[3][63] though "the cause and method" of her death were still being investigated by the Clark County Medical Examiner as of 22 August.^[2][62]

The 2024 Vuelta a España began on 17 August 2024, with Colombian former cyclist Víctor Hugo Peña presenting the tour for ESPN and giving a tribute to Larreal at its opening.^[64] Media in Zulia reported that there would be a tribute to Larreal held at the Teo Capriles Velodrome [es] in Venezuelan capital Caracas, and that her body would be repatriated,^[65] though the process of repatriation would be lengthy. Larreal's mother, Gladis Teresa, had died years earlier and been interred at the Cementerio del Este [es] in Caracas. At the time Larreal bought the plot there, she requested to be buried next to her mother, which her father said after her death that he planned to do.^[66]

• Daniela Larreal at Cycling Archives
• Daniela Larreal at CycleBase
• Daniela Larreal at Olympedia
• Daniela Larreal at Olympics.com