Nona Pérez: Spanish Water Polo & Medal Success

Nona Pérez can boast of being the best water polo player in Europe. An award that he especially values “because it is a recognition of a more defensive and less showy position.” Now he is looking for gold in the European Championship in Portugal with the national team “because I can’t conceive of anything other than winning gold.” To achieve this they will have to beat Israel this Saturday and the Netherlands on Sunday, which deprived them of the title in the last European Championship in Eindhoven: “It is not a ghost that torments us by any means.”

-The defeat against Hungary leaves them with no margin for error due to the new format of the European Championship.

-We knew that that match was heads or tails, since it could determine the championship. The good thing is that since it is a group match, with this new format it gives us another opportunity to qualify for the semifinals by beating the Netherlands. It is a match that we approach as if it were a quarterfinal.

-Do you like this new competition format?

-When the championship is over and depending on how things went, I suppose I will have a more defined opinion, but at the moment I didn’t like it very much. I liked the classic format. The quarterfinals are also attractive to the spectator, although I really believe that the chances of qualifying end up being the same.

-The ‘Main Round’ of the European Championship begins. This Saturday Israel and Sunday the Netherlands.

-The only thing worth winning is, they are head and tail matches. They are win or lose games and whoever wins stays alive.

-But this team grows with pressure…

-Yes, we prepare for it. We train every day with a lot of suffering and many hours to be able to get to these games focused on what we want. We work so that sensations do not condition us and that things that we do not control can play tricks on us.

-Despite being a young team, is the team’s champion DNA still intact?

-Yeah. From the lower categories they are working very well and they have been managing to get on the podiums for many years. Since I was there and many years before too. That’s why from a young age the Spanish DNA is about competing, winning and achieving medals. This means that when young people reach the senior team, the atmosphere that is palpable is the same that has been experienced on many occasions.

-So the goal of this European is still gold.

-Of course, always. We do not conceive anything else. In fact, sometimes I’m surprised that they ask me this because who isn’t going to go for gold in a championship of this caliber. But hey, each mentality is different. Ours remains the same and is none other than getting the gold.

-What needs to be improved for the Netherlands match?

-Especially details. With the level of both teams and how we arrived, what determines these important and high-level matches are the details. And then it is very important that we can control all the things that we already know are going to arise during the game so that there is little margin for error.

-And if the defeat in the final of the last European Championship is avenged, the better.

-Yeah. The last European competition we played against them we lost that final in Eindhoven, but a lot of time and many things have passed. It is not a ghost that torments us by any means. We know that it is a new game, that there are new players and the competition is completely different.

All players are important

-Having the best European player of the year is a plus for Spain.

-I don’t know (laughs). I hope it gives my teammates confidence because it gives me confidence. I continue in my line and continue working as I did last year and two years ago. It is true that this award makes you consolidate and have more confidence in yourself.

-What does it mean on a personal level to be the best water polo player on the continent?

-The fact that they nominated me was an honor in itself and that they finally gave me the award, since it is recognition for a lot of work and a more defensive and less showy position. I think that reflects a bit of the 360 of the teams, that all positions and roles are important, and that we all strive for the same objective, but from different points.

-Olympic champion, European champion, two more continental silvers, one silver and two world bronzes… How did you get into water polo?

-No one in my family is linked to the world of water polo and my parents come from the world of skiing and mountains. One day while taking courses to learn to swim, my instructor told me to try water polo because she thought I could be good at it because I had good legs for walking and skiing in the mountains. I did some entrance tests, they took me and well, from lower categories until today.

-And how do you get along with sharing the team with Bea Ortiz, one of your references.

-Sharing moments with all my teammates is a privilege, but I have created the references for myself once I have trained with them. It wasn’t anything platonic or admiring, but when I started training with all of them I saw the involvement, talent, effort and work and then they became my idols.