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“Before I was dying to win and now it’s hard for me to find the desire”

Mayte Amoros

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«A fire has come out of there inside to shoot with everything I had». In August 2021, Joan Cardona he won the Olympic bronze in Tokyo and his head told him that “he had no doubts that he was going to achieve it.” His passion for sailing was indisputable, his horizon was in the Paris Olympicshad set out to lose 15 kilos to compete in the Laser class – different from the Finn, in which he climbed on the podium – and get another medal in 2024. Ten months later, the reality is that the Olympic road has become uphill to this Balearic sportsman who conquered the first metal of Spanish sailing in the Japanese capital.

“It has been difficult because they are different boats and I have not had all the facilities I expected, in addition, the change in weight is costing me,” the Menorcan sailor acknowledges to ABC.

On May 5, he broke his fifth metacarpal while training in London. A mishap that will take him away from the sea for two months, although he is still active sailing in the Sail GP, the international sailing competition sponsored by Camper of which Cardona is an ambassador. He, too, continues to go running on his road bike, protecting his hand with a splint.

The bad thing is that during this time Joan Cardona He has gained 5 or 6 kilos, after the effort that it took to get down to 85 (he weighed 100). “I’m still on a diet, but as soon as I leave it, I regain weight,” she admits with resignation.

Los tokyo games they were the last of the Finn sailing class, which will no longer be an Olympic discipline in Paris 2024, but the hunger for medals forced the Menorcan to switch to Laser, a class in which he had already trained for four years, but which forced him to to lose weight.

Change in board and coach

Despite the struggle with the scale, his main problem now, as he acknowledges, is the lack of understanding with the Spanish Sailing Federation: “They did the impossible so that I would not continue with my coach, the board changed and they got rid of him,” he denounces. on dismissal of Diego Fructuoso.

“Now I’m with a Portuguese coach with whom I don’t and won’t understand each other,” laments the athlete, who says loud and clear that he is not comfortable and has lost motivation. “I was dying to be the best, but I need an environment and a team that I am comfortable with and feel that my life depends on it.”

It is still early to predict if he will get another Olympic medal, but Joan Cardona He believes that if he continues as before, “there are no options”: “Basically because I’m at a point where I don’t have the motivation.” “In Spain we could get more medals if politicians let athletes work,” laments the Balearic, pointing directly to “mismanagement” in the world of sports.

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