“My parents didn’t want me to compete”

It’s been just over a week since the Games ended. How are you doing the hangover?

– More or less. We are serving a lot of media and a lot of people after hanging up our medal in Tokyo. We have already been warned that when a metal is earned the holidays do not start the week after, but a month later. I am now enjoying this experience a lot.

It has been a totally abnormal Olympic cycle. How did you approach the postponement? Did it hurt you?

– It’s been complicated. In the end an Olympic campaign is very long and suddenly you reach two months from the date you have scheduled for four years and they tell you that you have to wait another year. It’s like running a marathon, getting to kilometer 32 and being told it doesn’t end at 42, but at 52. It was a major programming change, but it was the same for everyone and we were able to adapt well.

If the Games hadn’t been postponed, do you think you would have had better results?

– We got to the Games better thanks to this extra year we had to prepare them. We have been dedicated to continuing to improve the aspects in which we faltered. The postponement has certainly gone well for us.

Given the previous complicated year, did you need psychological help to face the Games?

– Yes, we have a psychologist and we worked hard on this appointment. It’s a competition we’ve been waiting for many years. We knew it would be a tough experience and we were working well before the Games both in individual sessions and with my partner, Nico. We anticipated the difficulties we might encounter so that, when they arrived, we would be prepared to react in the best possible way. The idea is to imagine them so that, when you have them in front of you, you have already experienced them.

They have been your second Games, different Games. Did they go as you expected?

– I lived them with a lot of nerves. I waited for them for many months and then, when they hadn’t started yet, I already wanted them to end. I wanted to know if we would get the medal or not. One of the things that really impressed us the most was that we went to these Games as clear medal candidates and that puts a lot of pressure on you. When you go to a Games as a clear candidate and not just thinking “Let’s see if I win it”, you notice the difference a lot. Notes you have to win because you haven’t come off the podium in five years. Failure to get the medal would have been a failure.

How did they differ from those in Rio?

– I thought that being in Rio would give me a lot of peace of mind and it didn’t help me even 10%. The mindset and pressure you feel when you go to the Games as a favorite, it’s a whole different world.

And then it’s your turn to compete. Was it as you expected?

– The first day I had a lot of nerves. You have been waiting for that moment all your life and suddenly the day comes and the first tests cost you. We had the body as if we were tired, it was not flowing, but we worked on this with the psychologist and we were aware that it could happen to us. We didn’t have to face the nerves, we had to let them flow and accept and understand the situation.

When you cross the finish line and see that you have achieved a medal you burst with emotion.

– I don’t even remember that moment. It was amazing. When we were at the last long finish it was spectacular. The position validated the medal for us. It was the reward for a lifetime of work. Not just ours, but also our family and the people who have worked for us to be there. We will not forget it.

Once with the medal around your neck, who was the first person you called?

– I called my parents. They came from the world of sports, from the engine, and in fact they didn’t want me to compete because they knew this world was very hard and sacrificed. But once they came to see that what I liked was to compete, they always supported me to the fullest and always gave me all the tools they could to do it.

Now you have a new reality ahead with an Olympic medal at home. How is the adaptation going?

– It was very special with my family and my partner. They have suffered a lot for a long time. It has been a beautiful reward and a very happy time.

Do you notice yourself inside a bubble for fear that everything will explode?

– Not so much. I notice that I have assimilated everything very quickly. People tell me that they see me calmly, and that I don’t feel that my life has changed, nor am I a different person. I feel like I’ve lost weight. I have been obsessed with the Tokyo Olympics for the past five years. There hasn’t been a day that I haven’t thought about it and to have achieved it is to have taken a weight off of myself.