Athlete of the Week – Andrea Tóthová

Athlete of the Week – Andrea Tóthová

Today’s heroine and Sportswoman of the Week will be Andrea from Štúrovo. She started doing sports at the age of 6 because of her father, who took her for a trip to the river Danube, where she admired speed canoeists. The father was the initial motivation. Initial admiration for this sport grew into passion and love, so she decided to study at the Sports Gymnasium in Trenčín, where Andrea improved so much that she even won the title of Slovak champion several times. Awesome.

Andrea is a teacher by profession, who loves her profession above all, but will also find time for doing sports. She loves swimming, aerobics and spinning; she used to be also the instructor. Unfortunately, the pandemic stopped her running ambitions. She was very pleased with our virtual challenges; she was able to overcome herself and help others. Her family consists of a husband and two sons – both footballers; the younger is even part of the youth team in Štúrovo. The third gentleman in the family – a husband, a professional soldier, even became the director of the local Sports Organization that creates conditions for practicing 6 sports. If he has some spare time, they run together with Andrea. Still, he prefers cycling, so there are heated discussions in the family about Peter Sagan and Petra Vlhová or the talented athlete Ján Volko.

Andrea spends her free time, of course, in addition to sports, by reading. Popular genres include Nordic crime, autobiographies of former athletes, and historical literature, especially the ancient period of Greece and Egypt. The Italian roots from the grandfather are responsible for the love of the sea, pasta and beautiful, warm days.

For us, however, Andrea is an extreme heroine. This energetic woman suffers from an autoimmune disease, a disorder of the vascular system, manifested by forced increased iron intake, in the worst case by transfusion. Running is complicated and complex – it directly affects the blood vessels and it often happens that Andrea has to miss days, even weeks of running or sports, for health reasons. However, even this condition does not discourage her from thinking positively – she always thinks of others and tries to help them, even beyond her limits.

And what would Andrea like to share with us in the end?

? Sport is a wonderful thing; it connects people and does not accept excuses. It’s incredible how each of us can contribute a little bit, and I hope that there will be more and more of us in the future – because we will achieve great things together. And if we improve our physics (and figure), it will only be a nice additional bonus to all the endorphins.

We look forward to seeing you again at the next (virtual) event, Andrea!