Vianey Del Carmen Santos

Happy birthday to Mexico’s sprinter Vianey Del Carmen Santos, who spends her weekends running fast and her matchdays being the loudest voice in the stadium.

Vianey is the official voice of Racing de Veracruz, the Liga Premier side they call the Purple Monster, which means her actual job is announcing other people’s sport to a full ground. It is a wonderful thing to be able to say about a sprinter, and it is not a hobby she picked up last week.

The running is going the right way at exactly the right speed. In April she ran 12.66 for the 100m at Apizaco and in May she clocked 26.34 over 200m, and both are lifetime bests set this season. She has taken more than four tenths off her 100m and half a second off her 200m, which at 20 years old is a proper jump rather than a rounding error. She has been on a national relay squad as well.

She is from Alvarado on the coastal plain of Veracruz, the country that gave the world son jarocho, played on the Veracruz harp and the jarana and sung in those high bright lines that carry over a crowd. A woman from that stretch of coast making her living with her voice and her legs at the same time is about as Veracruzana as it gets.

¡Feliz cumpleaños, Vianey! Que te canten las mañanitas al amanecer, mucha salud y muchos años más de correr y de gritar goles. 🎂🎁🎉🫶🫶🇲🇽