A look.There is probably no one in Spain today more loved and appreciated than Carolina Marín. She will need all that love in view of what lies ahead for her: overcoming the trauma, recovering from her injury and deciding her professional future. I met Carolina personally in 2014, when she accepted the invitation to come to Hanging from the Hoop(YouTube and Twitch channel that I recommend) to spend the afternoon and watch a basketball World Cup match that was being played in Spain. She had just been proclaimed world champion for the first time, which had us all a bit confused. A Spanish girl? In badminton? Isn’t it a sport where Asians always win?
In addition to being polite enough to answer with all the patience in the world our questions from complete strangers to her sport, I found her to be a freaked out. But one freaked out In a good way. When she spoke about her present and future, she showed a look of tremendous determination and a surprising self-confidence for her 21 years. Despite a certain shyness, her eyes shouted nothing is impossible, this World Cup is only the beginning and you will see what I am going to be capable of doing. A sparkle that has now, logically, disappeared and that I hope she recovers in time for this new and delicate process she faces.
Two golds. Simone Biles rarely fails. She dominates this discipline so much, both in sports and in the media, that I had a question. What do her rivals, such as the Brazilian Rebeca Andrade or the Italian Alice D’Amato, think of the fact that they have temporarily coincided with an extraterrestrial? Extra motivation to reach their limits? A blessing for their sport? A curse for them, who would have a few more medals to share if Biles did not exist? I quickly found the answer. Taking advantage of the few mistakes that the North American makes, D’Amato and Andrade have taken home an unexpected gold that will have done them glory. It is clear that Simone is a blessing for gymnastics, competing with her, one of the best in history, is a challenge that should serve as motivation for her rivals to be better every day and increases tenfold the value and satisfaction of a victory over her, even if it comes in dribs and drabs.
3×3. Don’t tell me it’s not nice that the ninth medal came in 3×3. But that’s where the coincidences end. This unexpected success is anything but coincidental. It is the triumph of the perseverance of a few players and a federation (Ana Junyer decisive) that opted for this novel modality to attract a young public who say that a two-hour match in the classic version is too much trouble. The commitment of the players, who sacrificed vacations, made the group grow on the court and in their complicity. The Tokyo games arrived and 3×3 became an Olympic sport. Spain had the desired ticket in its hands, but an unexpected short circuit against Japan took away their passport in extra time. Three years later, history was about to repeat itself. But sport sometimes takes away from you and other times gives you. Gracia Alonso de Armiño threw it on her back, a viral event, and justice was done.
Not content with being at the Games, from the first day they set about doing what they do best: competing. Each match in Paris has been nerve-racking, resolved in the final moments. Led by the wisdom of Vega Gimeno and Sandra Ygueravide, and physically supported by the freshness of Juana Camilión and Alonso de Armiño, the matches have gone by, the victories have fallen and the goals have risen to infinity and beyond, where they are now.
Getting from irrelevance to an Olympic final has been a long process that requires us to remember and recognize players like Aitana Cuevas, Marta Cañellas, Paula Palomares and others who put their effort and dedication into helping to follow a path that has now reached glory. To all of them, past and present, my heartfelt congratulations.
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