VALENCIA. Spanish judo has not reached an Olympic podium since the 2000 Sydney Games, a twenty-one-year drought with which it is willing to end a new successful generation of judokas who want to collect in Tokyo the “debt” that the Games have with judo Spanish, as pointed out by the Alocantina Ana Pérez Box, who stated: “The Games owe us one to judo, there are already too many fifth places.”
Ana Pérez Box, who hung the silver medal in the category of up to 52 kilos in the World Cups held last week in Budapest and the Spanish representatives achieved four metals -one gold, one silver and two bronzes- that have shot the podium hopes in the Japanese capital.
And it is that Spanish judo breathes optimism in the absence of only 35 days before the start of the Tokyo Games, as it was verified this Thursday in the colloquium “Camino al Olimpo” held at the headquarters of the Spanish Olympic Committee.
Successes that make one dream that the Nikoloz, Ana Pérez Box, Fran Garrigós, Julia Figueroa or Alberto Gaitero will allow Spanish judo to return to an Olympic podium.
Legends such as Isabel Fernández, Almudena Muñoz, Yolanda Soler or Ernesto Pérez Lobo already achieved it at the time, who wanted to share their Olympic experiences with the new generation of Spanish judokas.
“That day, enjoy the moment because the work is already done. Think combat by combat and, above all, put away doubts, bad thoughts, focus on the rival and how to beat him, do not get carried away by pressure, trust yourself ”, said Almudena Muñoz, Olympic champion in the Games of Barcelona 1992.
To the mental strength, Isabel Fernández stressed, gold at the 2000 Sydney Games and bronze at the 1996 Atlanta Games, must be added a winning attitude.
“The attitude makes you win, whoever comes out with a greater winning attitude already has fifty percent of the fight won,” said Almudena Muñoz.
