Athlete Burnout: Quitting Due to Pressure & Injury

His triumph not only breaks a border, but redefines the scale of what is possible in a discipline accustomed to looking at Asian dominance from afar. Temiño, who just a year ago went through a mental slump that led him to lose his enthusiasm for competing, has settled at the top supported by work and calm. Despite his youth, he speaks with the same precision with which he aims at the target. After finishing one of his training sessions at the CAR in Madrid, he reviews with ABC his recent success, the effort involved in high performance and the daily learning he draws from his sport to also be successful outside the shooting range.

-There are many ways to define what he achieved in Korea, but I am interested in his.

-Phew. Beating Korea is not easy. And doing it in Korea is even more surprising, because they are known to be the pioneers of world archery. They have been the best for many years and still are now. Beating them at home, getting a gold medal is already a source of pride, but doing it against them in the mixed, and then the individual, even more so.

-Do you see yourself as a pioneer?

-I see myself as one more. It is true that now, especially in Spain, I have the label of double world champion, but I want to continue being the same as I was before. I don’t like to boast. If I am a pioneer, let it be from the shadows.

-What have your friends told you?

-Well, nothing, very happy. All the messages I have received have been with great affection, appreciating that a success had finally arrived that recognized the work we are doing. But above all, I stay with the joy of family. They prepared a surprise party for me when I got home and it was the best part of the welcome.

-He even took a kick-off in La Romareda.

-Yeah. That the club in your city offers you that opportunity, both to make yourself known and for the sport, is exciting. And doing it in football, where the whole world sees it, was very special.

-Are you a soccer fan?

-Not much, but now in Zaragoza there is a boy I know, the best friend of a cousin of mine, Tachi, and that is why I follow him more.

-What expectations did you go to Korea with?

-To win. If you go to a competition to see what comes out, you are already on the wrong track. There were expectations of doing it well, but until you get it you don’t believe it. I dreamed it, I imagined it, but living it is different. I arrived at my best moment of the season, and the coin fell on our side. This time it went down well.

-He started with the mixed gold with Elia. How much did that help for the individual?

-A lot. The gold with her was little to me because we hadn’t finished the competition yet and I couldn’t fully celebrate it. Then we did, of course. But it gave me confidence for the individual. I tried to face it as if it hadn’t happened, to go calmly and without external expectations. Not having that high. And to a large extent I succeeded.

-Let’s go to the beginning. Why archery?

-For my father. When I was born, he looked for another hobby: he used to do model airplanes. In his family he always liked marksmanship; My uncles had a bow at home. At two years old he was already pulling with one of the Decathlon, with suction cups. I went with my father to the Zaragoza club, I saw that his arrows stuck and mine bounced. I got angry, I cried, and when my mother got home she said: ‘But what is this?’ My father took the suction cups off the bow and put points on it.

-What a danger.

-Yes, but I always went with him, he controlled everything.

-Did they have the club nearby?

-About ten or fifteen minutes by car. But my father had a ship where he worked and during the week he trained there. This is how I took advantage of the time and did homework or studied later.

-When does it become the way to go?

-About ten or twelve years old. I had to choose between indoor soccer, judo or archery. The competitions coincided and I always chose the bow. At football he was bad, or not so good. But I was good at the bow. I had a lot of friends there, some who still compete at the national level, and I chose it because it was what I liked to do. Since I was little I saw it as a way of life. In fact, now I don’t understand my life without the bow; I was born with it. When I started winning national medals they called me to the National Technical Plan and that’s when I decided to take it seriously.

-I ask you about three traits that define your character.

-Humble, strict, in the sense of disciplined, and calm. Sometimes I have my streak. I wouldn’t say aggressive, but strong… But above all that, disciplined and calm.

-When does that strong vein come out?

-When something goes out of plan. I am very organized and if something doesn’t go as expected, it makes me nervous. It’s silly, but for example, riding in the passenger car with my mother I get very nervous with people outside.

-And which of those traits that define you has helped you the most?

-Discipline and work. No matter how much talent you have, if you don’t train you won’t achieve anything. You have to be constant and strict with training, technique, physical and psychological preparation.

-Precision, strength, technique, mental control… In what percentages do you have to have each of these things to be a good shooter?

-Depends on the level. In initiation, technique is the basis. At a high level, I would say: five percent the material, ten percent the physical preparation, fifteen percent technique and the rest head: mental control, attention and emotional management.

-Do you train that often?

-Yes, many times a week. We are lucky to work with Pablo del Río, a psychologist from the CAR of Madrid with more than 30 years of experience. It has helped me a lot to manage nerves and expectations. Each arrow requires full concentration.

-They also train in strange conditions, right?

-Yeah. Another coach of ours, from Ibiza, gives us strange exercises: shooting further, with smaller targets, on one foot, with tension, even hitting ourselves with a churro on the head to maintain concentration. He has more than forty years of experience and comes up with things that no one else does.

-They also affect being in the present moment, in the here and now.

-Yeah. It is a philosophy of life, not just sports. I try to be present in what I do: if I am with my parents, I am with them; If I talk to you, I don’t think about anything else. It’s not about what happened or what can happen, but what you do now.

-In other words, he applies what he learns in life to sport, and not the other way around.

-Exact. I do sport because I like it and it fits with my personal life. I wouldn’t do anything to affect that. The basis is to enjoy. If something in your personal life improves you, the sport also improves. Sleeping well, having routines… everything influences. It is a philosophy of life, not just of the bow.

-Now the friendly side of the sport lives, but last year was different. What happened?

-Last year I shot very well: I broke records in Spain, Europe and the junior world. I won medals in World Cups and Europe, but the pressure of the Games came. I believed that I had to go no matter what because of my results, and that pressure got the better of me. There came a point where I decided not to compete again that year, not even in the Spanish championship. I saw no benefit, only wear and tear. It was hard to decide, but then I knew it was for the best. I learned a lot. Now I think that if the Games come, fine; If not, nothing happens. For example, the Games are high-profile, but a World Cup is more difficult, with many more rivals.

-And are you afraid that it will happen to you again?

-I know what happened and how to stop it. I noticed patterns that I didn’t see: I went down to train looking at the time to leave, without talking to my teammates. When you analyze this with the psychologist you see that it is not normal. If you do this because you like it, why are you eager to leave? Now I understand it better.

-What do you do apart from archery? What do you want to do?

-I don’t know yet. I am 21 years old and have time ahead of me. I study transportation and logistics, not because I am passionate about it, but because of job opportunities. But I still don’t know what I’ll do when I retire.

-The double world title will bring bigger scholarships.

-Yeah. When everything goes well, enjoying is easy. When it goes wrong, it costs a lot. But I try to maintain the same philosophy: enjoy the process. The scholarships give financial stability and peace of mind, also to help my parents if necessary. But the important thing is to continue enjoying and living in the present. If next year there are no results, I will continue the same, because I know that it works.

-And sponsors? Have any new ones dropped?

-I already have agreements with brands that provide me with all the material I need. No new ones have arrived, but I haven’t looked for them either. These weeks I have dedicated to my family, to rest, to being Andrés son, nephew, uncle… not the athlete. Those moments are also necessary.

-Elia Canales has taken the opportunity to sign for a professional Super League in India. Are new opportunities opening up?

-Yes, at the World Cup they proposed it to me, but I said no. I had a nephew’s baptism and family is above everything. If you let me know beforehand, next time I will be happy to go, but at that moment my priorities were different.

-Any famous athlete you admire?

-Rafa Nadal, because of how he sees the sport. I love his philosophy: that ‘when I stop enjoying it, I quit’. I also admire Arturo Coello and Agustín Tapia, from padel. They are humble and do not lose their roots.

-Do you practice that sport?

-Yes I like it. I am neither good nor bad, acceptable. I watch tournaments, and if Tapia and Coello don’t play, I hardly watch them. I identify with them because they started from the bottom, in a minority sport, like ours.

-The last one: any special congratulations?

-Two: one from Pau Gasol, who put it on Facebook, and another from the Kings, from the Royal House. It made me very excited.