Amaya Valdemoro, a great lady played basketball

I am not the next Usain Bolt or Michael Phelps; I am the first Simone Biles

Simone Biles

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-Let’s talk now, then …

It is nine in the morning and Amaya Valdemoro (43) is in a hurry.

As soon as we hang up, she tells me, a Twitter Live is waiting for her, a video call to talk about the NBA, whose beginning looms on the horizon, and another recording for the Endesa League, which has just ended.

In the background, more interviews are still looming: Amaya Valdemoro is an ambassador for Betfair.

“You see, my life is a mess,” he snorts.

–And you like it?

-I love it. I’m having a great time. I’ve been lucky.

“Have you not sought that fate?”

-I do not know. As a child I was trained to be an athlete. It has been on account of what this has come to me.

–¿…?

–Just like I quit basketball (2013), they called me. It wasn’t in the script, but …

“And didn’t it cost you to say yes?” Look how everyone doesn’t like public speaking …

–It cost me zero. I am quite daring. This is not easy, because people feel a lot about the sport and there may be someone who disagrees with any of my comments. I try to be impartial.

–And how is it prepared?

–Man, at first it was more difficult. He controlled Barça, Madrid, Baskonia, Unicaja, the great teams … That was little and above there have always been many rotations of Americans. You have to study. Learn names, memorize them, know how they play.

–I repeat, how do you prepare?

–I dive on the Internet. I am looking for videos, news. Now, who doesn’t know something is because they don’t want to. I also have word of mouth. I have a wide circle related to basketball. And I don’t cut myself: I go and ask.

“And you still play basketball, I mean once in a while?”

-Well, no…

Amaya Valdemoro says that she has suffered many injuries throughout her life. And that today it looks bad in shape.

–Train and play and look terrible I don’t like it.

“You don’t always have to go full blast, either,” I say.

-I am perfectionist. When I do things, I do them to win. And now my body is old. Since I retired I will have played three or four times. I do some shooting, little more. I prefer to go to the gym.

– And how had you started in basketball?

Amaya Valdemoro, arguably the best basketball player our country has ever given (she won three WNBA rings), says she comes from athletics. It was a girl and he ran crosses and track races at CAP Alcobendas, one step from your house.

She also says that she liked athletics, but that one day she had gone to see her sister’s basketball game (four years older), and there she discovered herself.

He was thirteen years old.

Physically she was better than the others; athletics had prepared me. And I loved the team dynamics ”

Amaya Valdemoro
Former basketball star and commentator

–A friend took me to the Tintoretto, for a test. That blew me away.

–And how about it?

–Physically it was better than the others: athletics had prepared me. And I loved the team dynamics, not the individuality that was in the other sport.

–And he did not return to athletics.

–At the age of fifteen he already debuted in the First Division.

“She was a baby …

–With fourteen years I was going to Salamanca. I played at the University. I turned fifteen as we contested the promotion to the Division of Honor. The following year I jumped into Dorna Godella. I was already a basketball professional.

“With all that, there was no way to study anything,” I comment.

–I had to leave my teaching career in Segundo. I spent time traveling. Life did not give me that much.

–And with you the first great generation of basketball women was born…

This February, Amaya Valdemoro and Marta Fernández were on stage in Berlin. They collected a Laureus award, the Oscars of sport. Spanish basketball was awarded, both male and female. They were both dressed up. On the red carpet, they attended the cameras and signed on the mural. They were stars.

Since 1993, women’s basketball has collected an Olympic silver (2016), three world medals and four European golds. Except in 2011, she has never stepped off a large podium.

–In my time, it was difficult to imagine that we would get to where we have arrived. So we formed a first team and from there the new generations came out.

–And do you feel recognized by the press?

–Maybe more recognition is lacking from day to day, but I think we are on the right track. What happens is that you always want a little more. Surely swimmers or athletes ask for the sameWhy not a little more presence on the news? Soccer monopolizes too much.

–And men’s sports …

–We had to get there and we are done. But we are late. As with machismo, or with education.