Three decades after the Barcelona Olympic Games, it is still inevitable to feel a tremendous emotion again like the one on the night of July 25, 1992, and especially the moment when, after seconds of maximum expectation, the stadium’s cauldron was lit. olympic And it’s her fault Antonio Rebollo, the goalkeeper who was chosen to launch that perfect shot that started the sports competition and that became an icon for history.
At that time it was the center of attention, with a grandstand filled to the brim and over 3.5 billion viewers watching him on television. His shot of a few seconds went around the world. “Over time I became aware of the impact that moment had,” he confesses thirty years later in an interview for ABC. Now, at 67 years old, Antonio dedicates most of the day to his work as a cabinetmaker, although he is still very much aware of his achievement in the Olympic Games.
Antonio Rebollo, in the cabinetmaking workshop where he works
Only two hours before the launch did he know that he was the chosen one. «At that time I didn’t think about anything because I just had to be focused and do what I had to do», he recalls. Luckily, and especially because of all the preparation work that was behind it, the play went well. “I was training every weekend for a year. First in the Montjuïc pit and then in the Estadi Olímpic », he comments. It all started with a selection process, which in Antonio’s case was special because they contacted him directly: they went to look for him at the Spanish Federation shooting range in Madrid, where he was from, and he traveled to the Catalan capital for a first Test. From then on, he explains, he began to work with the team of Reyes Abades, the special effects specialist who devised the magic of the Barcelona’92 arrow.
maximum secrecy
The goalkeeper had to sign a confidentiality document that prevented him from saying that he was in that selection process and took it to the letter to the point that he did not tell anything to his relatives. “Some colleagues knew that he was going to do the rehearsals in Barcelona, but I didn’t even tell my family,” he admits.
One of Antonio’s most valuable memories is the bow he used to light the cauldron. An object that is part of history and that he keeps with great affection, but that he has not used for a long time because he can no longer tighten it. “It was nothing like an Olympic competition bow, as It was a bow used for hunting.. It was a kind of modern stick, perfectly made, but made of wood and had no scopes or anything », he describes.
BARCELONA’92 OLYMPIC GAMES
«Some colleagues knew that I was going to do the rehearsals in Barcelona, but I didn’t even tell my family»
Barcelona’92 was, for him, much more than an advance in the tool he used, as Antonio points out that the event represented “a radical change, from the configuration of the city to the innovation of the show.” With that very vivid memory, the goalkeeper is pessimistic about the celebration of a new Olympic Games in Spain, as has been tried recently without success, because he believes that political influence is increasing when it comes to proposing candidacies. Nothing to do with what happened then, when the administrations rowed together to achieve a successful Games.
On a personal level, after the Games, Antonio did feel the center of attention and wherever he went he was recognized. «People asked me for photos and all the media wanted to interview me. It was a time when I got carried away », he recounts now, with a much quieter life in which, ironically, only lifelong friends stop him. “They don’t recognize me on the street anymore, because I don’t even recognize myself,” she says with a laugh.
Revolution in your discipline
Since he was a child he had to fight against polio, a physical condition that has affected him all his life, but that did not keep him from sports, one of his great passions. “It was what got me out of everything. In a humble neighborhood like San Blas, if there was any type of study, social or family problem, sport was the way one had to avoid bad times».
If something marked him, it was his passion for the bow, which ended up changing his life. Thanks to this, he became an elite athlete (with nine championships in Spain and one in Europe) and tasted Paralympic glory, with a silver medal in New York’84, a bronze in Seoul’88 and another silver in Barcelona’92. “Winning medals was a great satisfaction. After the last one, I felt a little weird because the accolades went down to just that one shot. It’s very good, but my sports curriculum was relegated », he admits.
his feat changed the arc world, until then basically known as an amateur sport and which gained popularity: many people became interested in this sport and helped make it more accessible to everyone. «The young people who are starting out in archery have far exceeded the expectations that we had at that time, both in scores and in the medal table. Before, there were three or four of us who were at the ‘top’ of archery and today there are a lot of people », he explains.
