Venezuelan Olympic champion fencer Ruben Limardo has taken up delivering food for UberEats to make both ends meet during the pandemic in his adopted hometown in Poland. The 35-year-old, who won a gold medal in the 2012 London Olympics, and also clinched a silver medal in the 2018 World Fencing Championships conducted in China, will go for glory at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. The ace fencer took his fans by surprise when he revealed the nature of his work on the social media website Instagram.

The fencer said, “You have to earn your way and this is a job like any other,” reflecting on his food delivery job for UberEats.

Limardo however, is not the only one out making deliveries, 20 members of Venezuela’s national fencing team live in the Polish town of Lodz.

“We are all delivery riders,” said Limardo, speaking in fluent Polish.

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Limardo won his first Olympic gold medal in 2012, becoming the first fencer from Latin America to achieve the feat since Cuba’s Ramon Front in 1904.

He is also the second Venezuelean gold medallist after pugilist Francisco Rodriguez to win a medal for his country.

Five mornings a week the group of 20 meets in a former workshop on the largely abandoned industrial site of Lodz to practise fencing in their white uniforms, said Limardo. He added, “We get very little money from Venezuela because of the crisis there. And the pandemic has turned everything around. There are no competitions, the Tokyo Olympics were delayed for a year and the sponsors are saying they will start paying again in the new year.,”That’s why we have to make money on the road.”

The fencer added that he does 50 kilometers per day on his bike, earning around 100 euros a week.

“It works well with our training. We could even say it is an extension of the training,” said the married father of two.

“It allows us to live, finish our studies. We help each other out with training, paying rents. Everyone works to finance the others in the group,” he said.

Lamardo, who has lived in Poland for 19 years, has created a foundation for Venezuelan fencers as well as a club to teach fencing to children and take part in local competitions.

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He added that the pandemic had been tough and said, “”Every time I make a delivery I tell myself that it will help me win the medal I want at Tokyo in 2021.”