Río de Janeiro, Mars August 16, 2016. Santiago Lange has just won her third Olympic medal and first gold at the age of 54 after a dramatic Medal Race in the Nacra 17 class, with her partner Cecilia Carranza Saroli. But they don’t know it.
The coach of both, Mateo Majdalani, does the math and discovers that the Argentine duo won by just one point over Australia (Jason Waterhouse-Lisa Darmanin) and Austria (Tanja Frank-Thomas Zajac) and embrace the champions. It is the crowning moment of one of the great stars of the yachting in Argentina. He does not know that this will be his last medal and even less was he going to imagine that the person who would put an end to his extensive and successful Olympic career would be, in part, that young man who gave him one of the best news of his life.
Majdalani is hours away from competing for his seconds Panamerican Games next to Eugenia Bosco. Already classified to represent Argentina in the JParis 2024 Olympic Gamesthey chat at length with Clarion. “We’ve been together for seven years: that’s a lot. And it’s our best moment.”, she says without hesitation. He explains it by giving central importance to the time she was close to Lange and especially to that Rio 2016 experience that she defines as “absolutely key.”
“I am convinced that to have a good Olympic campaign and fight for a medal We all need someone to guide us and teach us. I learned from the experience of Rio 2016 many things that we carry out today in our team. It especially helped us face those first moments when we didn’t have a coach. It was fundamental for the start of our campaign,” he reflects.
Majdalani tried on the gold medals from Lange and Carranza. She now she wants her own. Instagram @mateomajdalani.
After those Games in Brazil, Lange and Carranza had plenty of motivation to keep going. But they had rivals. Majdalani and Bosco began sailing together at the end of 2016 and intended to compete with the Olympic champions for the Argentine spot for the edition of Tokio 2020.
However, there came a time when they made the decision to change direction and think more long-term. Take one step back and then take two steps forward. The agreement was that Lange and Carranza would go to the Olympic Games and Majdalani-Bosco, to the Lima 2019 Pan American Games.
In this way, they stopped being rivals and became teammates. They no longer had to compete to see which of the two crews would go to Tokyo and then they could train together and thus strengthen themselves. A round “business”, especially for Mateo and Eugenia, who were going to compete in their first Pan American Games and had the enormous privilege of training every day and growing alongside the Olympic champions.
“After the 2018 World Cup, when they were third and we had been fighting ahead, they achieved Olympic qualification, which did not mean that they were selected, but we understood that it was very difficult to change that dynamic because they had just won the gold and we were the new ones. “It seemed to us that we would have a better chance of going to Paris if we made that agreement and put all our energy into the next campaign.”Mateo tells Clarion.
Wise decision with Monday’s newspaper, although it was a risky move. Nothing assured them that it would turn out well. But it turned out well. They won the silver medal in Lima 2019 and last August, with the ninth place obtained in the World Cup in The Hague, They secured their place in the Paris Olympic event, displacing Lange from that place, who in the last cycle ran with Victoria Travascio.
Mateo Majdalani and Eugenia Bosco, silver in Lima 2019. Instagram @majdalanibosco.sailing.
Their second Pan American Games will arrive first. “We prepare it with the same importance and with the same desire to win as the Olympic Games. It is very important for our sport,” says Eugenia.
“Obviously, the level and the demands are not the same, but when you are there you have the same desire to win. This championship is very useful for us because they are very similar to the Olympic Games: one per country, the Argentine delegation traveling and so on. Being able to control that and at the same time be focused on the races and not get distracted is very important,” he adds.
The gold medal in Chile is the first big goal for them, not just a dream. And they feel in a position to achieve it. This year they were runners-up in the French Olympic Weekin Hyeres, and finished in eighth place in the Princess Sofia Trophy, in Palma de Mallorca. They are two of the most important championships that exist in the nautical world and thus earned the respect of the fleet.
“We are among the six or seven boats that have a chance at the Olympic Games and these months are key”, both agree, with the satisfaction of the path taken.
In addition to the agreement with Lange, another important decision that led them to where they are today was move to europe. After a time in which they studied and worked alongside the campaign, three years ago they settled in Spain and are dedicated full time.
“Today, Olympic sport, whatever the discipline, requires that you be 100% focused. In the case of sailing, with the competitions and the level in Europe, it is very difficult to do it from Argentina,” they reflect.
Majdalani trained at the San Isidro Nautical Club and Bosco did so at the San Pedro. Photo Maxi Failla
Yachting is an expensive sport. Competing at a high level means traveling the world and that means investing a lot of money. The support of the Argentine Yachting Federation It alleviates those costs, but to obtain that financial aid you need to demonstrate results. And how do you get those results? Mostly, away from Argentina: training and competing against the best.
One thing depends almost exclusively on the other and that is why it is often so difficult for Argentines to compete against the powers. Mateo and Eugenia managed to go through those most difficult moments, moments of anxiety in which they had to be their own sponsors to now enjoy a comfort that they came after.
“We had to row it quite a bit. We spent many years without a coach. There are times when you feel that it is very difficult to close that gap against teams that have a much stronger structure at the back, but we did it and today we are in a very good position,” explains Majdalani.
He constantly returns to the learning that Lange left him. “All the Argentine medalists, from Steps (Carlos Mauricio Espínola) in 96 until Santi In Rio, they are very hard-working people and we absorb that,” he explains.
His coach is another medalist: Javier Conte, bronze in Sydney 2000 with Juan de la Fuente in the 470 class.
And it does not escape the question that athletes often prefer to avoid. Will there be a second Olympic chapter in Los Angeles 2028? “The truth is that I see it. Today we are not thinking about that, but the natural thing would be to try a few more Games. The life of the athlete depends on the results, but if the possibilities are given and we continue enjoying, we have to consider it because it is not easy form these teams and have possibilities,” Mateo reflects.
2023-10-28 09:00:53
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