Spain maintains its sporting level with lights and shadows

With 17 medals, the same ones obtained in the Tokyo 2020 Games as in those of Rio 2016, Spain maintains its level, although with lights and shadows. Spanish sport closed the appointment postponed by the pandemic with 42 diplomas (eight fourth places), but with only three golds, in a Games marked by a considerable reduction in public and private investment. Against the seven golds of Rio, only Sandra Sánchez in karate, Alberto Ginés in climbing and Alberto Fernández and Fátima Gálvez in Olympic shooting were proclaimed champions in the Japanese capital.

Spain thus fell from fourteenth to twenty-second place in the medal table, surpassed by ten European countries, in a Games in which metals were achieved in 13 sports. If it had not been for the absences of Rafa Nadal, Carolina Marín or Jon Rahm, a crop without prominence of swimming could have been increased and diversified even more as a result of the injuries and the delay in the preparation of Mireia Belmonte, but with the irruption of young talents who aspire to repeat the podium or debut in Paris 2024.

Ana Peleteiro, on the Olympic podium with her bronze medal. /

AFP

The reborn Ana Peleteiro won the only medal, the bronze in triple jump, but Eusebio Cáceres (length) and the walkers Álvaro Martín, María Pérez and Marc Tur remained at the gates of the podium. She had already been a junior world champion and also an absolute champion on the indoor track, but under the guidance of Iván Pedroso, the Galician jumper exploded at the age of 25 in Tokyo, where she also broke her own Spanish record twice. Peleteiro thus became the third Spanish Olympic medalist athlete, after María Vasco (bronze in progress) and Ruth Beitia (gold in height).

The men’s team achieved one of the three metals in team sports, a bronze that rewarded the competitiveness and bravery of the Hispanics in the farewell of their captain, Raúl Entrerríos. Spain could not reach its first Olympic final, but won the third medal at stake for the fourth time, after losing in the semifinals against the team that defended the title, Denmark, which fell in the fight for gold against France in the rematch in Rio .

David Valero won the same medal in Tokyo that his coach, Carlos Coloma, achieved at the Rio Games, although two years younger, since the Granada-born man climbed to the podium with 32. A bronze on a mountain bike marked by a spectacular comeback, from the twentieth place to the third. The record of the unknown Valero, except with his titles in the Spanish Championships and with a European bronze three years before, was orphaned of a flashy medal. In Rio he could only be ninth.

Alberto Ginés climbs to the gold of Tokyo. /

REUTERS

In a new discipline, Alberto Ginés surprised with an unthinkable gold for an 18-year-old whose goal was not Tokyo 2020, but Paris 2024, and who, given the lack of facilities, was forced to train in commercial climbing walls. The Extremaduran was in the final the best in speed and last in the block modality, and climbed from fourth place in the general to gold in an exciting test of difficulty, his favorite, which was not decided until the last second.

After being left out in three of the last four Games, the Spanish team won the fourth Olympic medal in its history, the third silver after those of Antwerp 1920 and Sydney 2000, with the greatest success in Barcelona’92, with the gold of the ‘Quinta del Cobi’. La Rojita, led by Luis de la Fuente, led by Barça Pedri and with five other players semifinalists in the Eurocup with the absolute (Unai Simón, Pau Torres, Eric García, Dani Olmo and Oyarzabal), lost the final in Tokyo against Brazil in the extension.

After the disappointment of not even entering the final at the Rio Games, Ray Zapata won a silver on the ground that he was not satisfied with. The gymnast of Dominican origin added the same score as the Israeli Artiom Dolgopyat, who took the gold for an exercise of greater difficulty than that of the Spanish. Zapata took over 13 years later from the man who would become his coach, Gervasio Deferr (gold on the colt in Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004 and bronze on the ground in Beijing 2008), to already dream of gold in Paris.

Damian Quintero, sterling silver. /

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In a sport that premiered in Tokyo and will disappear in the next Games, both Sandra Sánchez and Damián Quintero fulfilled the predictions in the kata modality. The Talaverana, with the gold, as she did in the World Cup against her usual rival, the Japanese Kiyou Shimizu, and the Malaga, with the silver against the also Japanese Ryo Kiyuna. Sandra Sánchez, standard-bearer at the closing ceremony, later signed a unique and surely unrepeatable feat, proclaiming herself in the same year world, Olympic and European champion.

This sport took three metals in the Games, two in calm waters (Teresa Portela’s silver in K1 200 and K4 500) and one in whitewater (Maialen Chourraut’s silver). In her sixth Olympic participation, Teresa Portela fulfilled her life’s dream at the age of 39. For the team made up of Saúl Craviotto (five medals already), Marcus Cooper, Carlos Arévalo and Rodrigo Germade it was no surprise that they suffered runner-up, after being surpassed only by the German. Neither for Maialen, bronze in London 2012 and gold in Rio.

Adriana Cerezo was in charge of inaugurating the Spanish medal table in Tokyo. He had guaranteed gold at -49 kilos, but with less than seven seconds to go to the end of the fight against one of his idols, the Thai Panipak Wongpattanakit, his eternal smile turned into tears of rage and despair. At the age of 17 and in his first Olympic participation, he came to apologize for having lost the most precious metal, due to a fatal error in not knowing how to manage that decisive section that resolved the final by a single point (11-10).

Without Rafa Nadal or Roberto Bautista, Pablo Carreño became the unexpected hero of the ‘Armada’, with a gold-flavored bronze in the consolation final against Novak Djokovic. With nothing to lose after beating Daniil Medvedev in the quarterfinals and losing to Karen Khachanov in the semifinals, the Spaniard unhinged the world number one in one of the best, if not the best, matches of his career. Carreño struck with a huge victory against the Serbian, who aspired in 2021 to the ‘Golden Slam’: the big four and the Olympic gold.

Alberto Fernández and Fátima Gálvez. /

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The first gold for Spain came from Alberto Fernández and Fátima Gálvez. In the pit modality both had already been individual world champions, the Madrilenian twice, and the Cordovan once, but as a couple their top was up to Tokyo in the European title won in 2019. After many years and numerous medals In international competitions, the long-awaited Olympic metal finally arrived for both in mixed teams, in the fourth Games of Alberto and the third of Fatima.

There were two medals achieved in Tokyo, both bronze, for Joan Cardona in the Finn class, and for Jordi Xammar and Nico Rodríguez in 470. The young Balearic sailor, European bronze in 2020 and world silver in 2021, confirmed his progression in his first Olympic Games, in a class that will disappear in Paris 2024. In the case of the 470 couple, the Catalan and the Galician were runners-up in the world and in Europe in 2019 and repeated continental silver just three months before reaching the podium in the Japanese capital.

The women’s team was only surpassed in the Tokyo Games, as it happened in London 2012, by the United States, world champion and Olympic in the last three editions of both appointments. The Water Warriors had no choice in the final against the powerful American team (14-5), nine years after winning a silver in the British capital that then tasted like gold (8-5), but second place in Tokyo It came in a process of renewal of the team led by Miki Oca.