When competing, Jordan Diaz is a member of the Scout Corps. Attack on Titan. In Rome, when he won the European Championship, in Paris before the Olympic gold, when he was introduced, he salutes the explorers with his fist on his heart and bites the edge of his hand as he attacks his jump, like the captain who turns into a titan in the anime that keeps him awake at night, and when he finishes chapter after chapter it’s three in the morning, he confesses, and on his Instagram his race to the pit is transformed into that of an explorer from his favourite cartoons. Like Noah Lyles, anime is the inspiration for the young 23-year-old Spaniard from Havana, his motivation, his way of handling the supreme tension he feels. After competing, and he does his duty and wins, and not even 16 hours have passed when he undergoes a round of interviews that he owes to his sponsor, Red Bull, he is an empty man, exhausted, subjected to torture, he says, of someone who wants to rest, he sees the moment, but can’t. “Who would like to answer 18 interviews…” he says. “Yes, it is what it is, yes, but still…”
Ask. The bell of Olympus has already rung…
Answer. I’m already in the story, yes.
P. What does glory taste like?
R. As if I had had time to savour it… I haven’t had time to do anything. But, once I got the medal, the excitement has increased. And I’ll be carrying the flag tomorrow at the closing ceremony.
P. He can’t wait to go on vacation…
R. I’m leaving here with a desire for everything, except training, except sports. I don’t want to know anything.
P. Is it more mental exhaustion, a feeling of emptiness?
R. Yes, that’s right. Right now what I need is a little rest. After all, I’m training all year for these goals. And it’s complicated. There are always ups and downs, and both physically and psychologically, you have to know how to manage everything well, because it’s complicated.
P. Throughout his career, he has won all the major competitions he has entered as a favorite except for the Pan American Games in 2019, when he won silver…
R. Well, people were making me the favourite here in Paris, but I didn’t see myself as the favourite at all. They said that because I had jumped 18.18m and all that, but I was competing with the previous Olympic champion, world champion, European champion and a person with a lot of experience. [Pedro Pablo Pichardo]. I, at least, did not see myself as a favourite to win the gold medal. But you can see how much I won by just two centimetres. It was a hard fight.
P. Two centimetres that seemed like a world, a wall against which the rival crashed until he became desperate and lost his nerves…
R. Yes, I think so, the first jump, how I responded to Pichardo, was key to the whole course of the competition. But the tension that is experienced in competitions and even more so in the Olympic Games, which I had not tried because they are the first, is terrible. The tension and pressure that this entails is terrible, because you know that it is the top competition that any athlete dreams of.
P. But you hid it very well, you didn’t lose the flow, the relaxation while jumping, at any time…
R. Yes. The good thing is that I had jumps there in 84, 85, I had good stability and that’s the good thing, I’ll stick with that. It was complicated. In the end, they are completely different competitions to the European Championships or a championship in Spain. It’s the toughest thing, what all the athletes prepare for every four years just for this, and it’s tough.
P. Do you consider yourself a killer in the jumping hall, one who refuses to lose?
R. No, let’s see. In this life of an athlete I’m going to win and I’m going to lose. I’m even going to lose more than I win. I hope it’s the other way around, but it’s very difficult to maintain a level where you win everything. So you always have to be prepared, so that when you lose you don’t get stressed. Don’t get stressed or go crazy.
P. Where are you going on vacation?
R. I have no idea. I want to make lots of plans and in the end, when I have lots of plans, I end up not making any. But yes, I will do something, I have it clear. I will give myself around three weeks, around there. Yes, my vacation started yesterday. Well, my vacation doesn’t start until I return to Spain on Monday, because here we go, I’m saturated with interview topics and the whole story.
P. So little?
R. Yes, yes, yes. We have to keep training. We can’t stop. Back to Guadalajara.
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