One day, as a child, Claudia Vila she watched on television, at home, in Sant Martí Vell, where her parents have a restaurant, the Olympic Games, she doesn’t remember if they were in Atlanta (1996) or Sidney (2000), stunned by the performances of the gymnastics competition artistic “I want to do this”, she said to her parents, and so began to write her story in the world of this sport, a girl from Girona who, in her thirties, is settled in Madrid and is part of the coach of the Spanish women’s national team since November 2022. She studied criminology, but has never practiced. His thing is gymnastics. What she was passionate about through the small screen and which was about to lead her, as a protagonist, to an Olympics in 2012, in London. It could not be and that same year he went from dreaming of the Games to retirement, due to injuries.
“I’m very proud to have paved the way”, says our protagonist, who shares a flat in Madrid, but also spends days of the week in Conca, where her partner lives, taking advantage of the good connection with AVE: “you’ll be there in an hour”, she says. Vilà does not hide that “my dream was to go to London, but it was not possible. I remember it and I feel very proud of everything I did.” It is now when he is seen training in the Torras i Bages gym, without the luxuries and benefits of the current pavilion, which came a few years later, alongside the founder of the Salt Gimnàstic Club, Montse Hugas. Her parents took her there when she decided she wanted to do this sport and immediately Hugas herself saw her as a winner: “she always said she had aptitude, ‘this girl will go far'”.
And yes, he did make it far. Soon she became one of the most recognized gymnasts of the Salt Gimnàstic Club and did the Jump at CAR of Madrid, integrated in the Spanish selection. “I didn’t give up anything, it was my life and my decision, I didn’t know anything else. In the end I did the same as the rest of the young people, I went to university and got a degree in Criminology, although I have always been involved in sport”, he says. In terms of studies, unlike in sports, where he was always clear that he wanted to be a gymnast, he hesitated between psychology and law “and in a quick decision I did what has a bit of both”. This degree “has served me a lot and I liked it a lot”, he has learned from it in life and for his career. In addition, because of the pandemic, he decided to open and manage a second leg of the family restaurant in Sant Martí Vell: a summer terrace that he takes care of remotely “although I try to be there whenever I can”.
In 2012, without the Games and marked by injuries, he stopped. Clàudia Vilà explains that “it was clear that that was a date on the calendar to return home, to stay in Madrid things would have to have gone very well. I wanted to come back because suffering what I suffered when training, due to injuries, it was not worth it for me to continue. The decision was easy.” Her record includes championships in Spain, having entered the World Cup final on balance beam, and being the best Spanish gymnast in a World Cup (40). She never competed against Simone Biles, they were from different generations. Although she has never been one to have too many idols, she liked Russian and Romanian gymnasts like Aliya Mustafina.
Once she retired, and at the age of 18, she started working as a trainer at home, at Salt Gimnàstic. “I suppose that this attracted the attention of the Spanish team”, he points out, led by Lucía Guisado, who signed her at the end of 2022. The selection has been left out of the Paris Games by teams, but at the individual level it has two places for Ana Perez i Alba Petisco. Two more gymnasts fight for a third. In Madrid there are Laia Masferrer from Girona and the junior Élia Ribas. Now they begin their journey to try to reach the Games not in Paris, but in Los Angeles in 2028.
2024-03-11 05:30:28
#proud #paved #gymnastics
