“Sportsmanship has changed”

-Where were you born?

—I was born in Casablanca when it was still the French protectorate. My mother, Adele, was of Valencian origin, but she was born in Oran and later moved to Casablanca. There she met my father, Roco, who was of Sicilian origin, but was born in Tunisia (laughs), yes, each part of my family is a long story. My sisters Angele, Nicole, Andrée and I, who am the second, were born there. My father died very young, life there was very difficult and my mother remarried, in this case to a Frenchman, Alfred, who was the one I grew up with. In fact, at the age of 18, I had to decide my nationality between French and Italian. I decided the French.

—Did you grow up in the Casablanca of the 40s?

-That’s how it is. That’s where I got hooked on the sport. I started track cycling at the age of 15. The thing is that the track was uncovered and in winter you couldn’t train because it was very slippery. So I trained in cycling in the summer and in the winter I trained in judo to keep fit. In the end I made more progress in judo than in cycling. Having French nationality, the troubled years there caught me and I had to do a three-year military service. Although, with the excuse of sports, I already had a name, I got special permits to go to training and, after all, I had a good military service. One day on leave and with a lot of wind, training with the bike I got behind a bus, it turned out to be a test vehicle and, when testing the brakes I crashed into it and broke my nose.

—How long did you live in Casablanca?

—Until 27 years old. When Casablanca ceased to be a French protectorate and they stopped making contracts with the Europeans. There he was never quite calm. I remember when I was little, he was looking out the window as the planes went by, and suddenly a stray bullet hit right behind me. With independence we had to leave the whole family to France. I was already married to Lucía and we had our daughter, Corinna, mother of my granddaughters, Sinué and Tanit. At first we went to Rodès, but I didn’t like it and we went to the south coast. I knew about electricity and electronics, I had obtained my degree in aircraft electronics, and I worked for a couple of years in Monte Carlo preparing rally cars. One of the pilots, Jon Cason, had a slot machine and jukebox company in Cannes and he asked me to work for his business. I was with him in Cannes for about five years, always combining work and sport.

—How did you get to Ibiza?

—Lucia didn’t like being alone on the Côte d’Azur. She had no family there and we decided to go to Madrid, her family is from there. The point is that I didn’t like Madrid, I’ve always lived near the sea and I couldn’t be in Madrid, so we moved to Alicante. There I immediately found a job as a slot machine technician, the boss had machines in Ibiza and he sent me to fix them. I went with my wife, I fixed them immediately and, a while before we left, a French gentleman who lived in Portinatx, Rique, approached us and suggested that I open a slot machine business in Ibiza. I accepted and we stayed in Ibiza.

—Were you still training in Ibiza?

—When I arrived there was nothing and I could not live without sports. Since I already had my judo degree, what I did was set up a judo and bodybuilding gym, in 1968, which turned out to be the first in Ibiza. The Ibizans received me very well. I always felt very loved, and that is because I had more than 300 children. I went to all the festivities with my tatamis to do exhibitions and promote judo. In addition, I also went to Formentera, I spent ten years taking Joven Dolores every weekend to give classes to the kids. In Sant Antoni, I set up two judo gyms called Kamakura. Years later we expanded the gym to the premises next door, which used to be the Nautilus restaurant. The premises were bought by Julià Verdera, who was the owner of Ibiza Playa. We made an agreement like before, the oral ones signed with a handshake: he gave me the room upstairs to set up the gym, and hotel guests could use it for free. More than a thousand people came each season.

—He has trained several generations of athletes

—That’s right, and I’ve had many students who have ended up setting up their own gyms and who have become martial arts teachers or bodybuilding champions. Vicente Segovia, who was champion of Spain, started with me. Rafa Tur also started with me, to flirt with my daughter. He is the father of my granddaughters and has ended up setting up the Nirvana gyms. I also set up a cycling club, the CCP, [Un cliente sale del gimnasio y no se resiste a hacer su comentario: «tengo 60 años y llevo con Pascal desde que tenía ocho años. Me llevó al primer campeonato de España de Judo y ha hecho a muchos campeones y deportistas»].

—Has the atmosphere in a gym changed much since it started?

-Yes. The sportsmanship has changed. Now they don’t want to suffer. They train with the mobile and that is not training. In the past, there were neither cell phones nor music in the gyms. He was training more seriously. He knew how to suffer. Now they want everything fast, take anabolic drugs and train to work as doormen in a nightclub. I have never touched anabolics. As for martial arts, they have diversified a lot, now there are all kinds, aikido, karate… and judo has lost a lot of popularity. Also, now there are many gyms, it’s not like when I opened, when there weren’t any.

—Was there competition between gyms or martial arts?

-Nope. There was never any problem. If there was a problem, it was with the federation, who brought her from Mallorca and did nothing but bitch. When the draws for the Balearic competition were made, the first thing they did was pit the Ibizans against each other, so that one would already be eliminated. Fed up with that, I gathered all the gyms to unite in a single club, the Judo Club of Ibiza and Formentera. In this way, all the Pitiusan competitors could register without being pitted against each other.

Are you still training and exercising?

-Nope. Since the arrival of the Covid I stopped training and I no longer feel like it. I am 88 years old and have exercised a lot. I’ve always gone by bike, I’ve dived, I’ve swum to Isla de las Ratas… Also, judo competitions are very aggressive and, at this age, I’m already a little cracked, especially in the knees. Although, in Ibiza a little less than before, I feel recognized: not only was I included in the Encyclopedia of Ibiza and Formentera, but at an international martial arts gala they gave me a platinum award for my career. Of course, I still spend 12 hours a day in the gym giving advice to clients. Professionally, I haven’t trained anyone for about ten years. What I do is be in the gym for not being at home.