Quim Salarich: Defending Catalan Identity & Pride

Quim Salarich (Vic, 1994) faces his third Olympic Games full of morale and with the hope of getting a medal in slalom: “Why not?” For now, he will have the responsibility of flag-bearing the Spanish delegation tomorrow along with the skater Olivia Smart at the Olympic Stadium in Milan. “I have to be proud to represent my teammates who have not been able to qualify and all the rest of the athletes in the country,” he says proudly before clarifying that he will send a WhatsApp to “Lucas Eguibar (who was in 2018) to give me some advice.”

-Spain arrives at Milano Cortina 2026 with 20 athletes, the largest delegation in its history at the Winter Olympic Games, equal to Sochi 2014 and Grenoble 1968.

-It is a pride to see how the winter sports family begins to grow little by little and we hope it continues to do so to be able to have, who knows, 50 athletes in the next or 8 years. This figure means that we are doing things well and that we are also betting on winter sports.

-The team is made up of thirteen girls and seven boys.

-In my sport I can say that we are 50-50, but regardless of gender we are going to defend certain colors and the girls are going to do it just as well as the boys. In that sense there is no problem because we are a family that works with the same objective.

-You will have the honor of being the flag bearer of Spain along with the skater Olivia Smart.

-I didn’t expect it at all. It is true that they had told me at the beginning of the season that there was some possibility, but in the end there are many good athletes with an incredible resume. When they told me, I got goosebumps.

-How many times have you imagined that moment?

-If I’m honest, none. They ask me this a lot and I always say that I’m going to let myself flow. The important thing is that I don’t drop the flag, because the rest will be easy. I’m going to flow, live in the moment and enjoy it because it’s something that only happens once and doesn’t happen to everyone. I have to be proud to represent my teammates who have not been able to qualify and all the rest of the athletes in the country. We will be your visible face for the winter games.

A WhatsApp to Lucas Eguibar

-Have you asked the previous standard-bearers, Queralt Castellet and Lucas Eguibar, for advice?

-The truth is that I haven’t had time. I have spoken to Lucas but I didn’t ask him about it because he had hurt himself and I asked him how he was. I think the day before I’m going to send him a WhatsApp so he can give me some advice.

-Until now, five medals have been won in the history of the Winter Olympics. Can this medal table be expanded in Milan?

-I think so. Then the sport is what it is and in the end it is a one-day competition in which there are many factors that can influence the balance to tip one way or the other. But I see a very powerful delegation because in ski mountaineering they are very strong, in skating they are always there fighting between the diploma and the medal, in snowboarding there are Lucas, Queralt and Puyol, who is also going very strong. Even I feel like I have the possibility of achieving it and I tell myself that I am capable of doing it. It’s difficult, we are not among the favorites, but I repeat to myself that if I am on the scoreboard, I have the qualities and abilities to do it, you have to go for it. So if everything turns out to be in your favor, why not?

-It would be nice to get it in your third Games…

-Exactly, hat-trick. Third time’s the charm, they say.

-With those from Milano another tattoo will arrive.

-When I got my earrings tattooed the first year I told myself, but Quim, you went there and fell. I mean, you haven’t done a great result either. You only went to participate… but they are very cool. My friends joke with me that it seems like Audi sponsors me.

-The Games have an outstanding debt with you.

-Yes, because in my seconds I was not aware of how fast I could go and the results I could achieve. When I go out in the Games I go with the mentality that I can do it and in the first set I was in medal times, but then I fell. But it’s what I look for when I’m there.

-He has never been able to transfer the good results he has achieved to the Games.

-Exactly. This sport is a descent, well actually two descents, in which if you make a mistake the difference between first and twenty is so little that it can leave you out of the medals. You have to try to embroider the sleeve. In terms of skiing and maturity, I am in my best moment and I think I have to take advantage of that.

The Fernández Ochoas

-What is the most difficult thing about slalom, your specialty?

-Don’t fail, because at the end you have 60 curves at high speed and with a short turn, which is most likely to fail. Since you try your hardest, the most normal thing is to fail, that’s why the most difficult thing is not to fail. Doing it seems easy to me, but then it has to be done.

-Does it get scary at that speed or is there no time?

-Not in my discipline and I thank God, and so does my wife, because I am not one of those who speed because there they pass very close to the fences and you are not protected at all. They go with your body and a small airbag and a fall can be fatal.

-Talking about skiing in Spain is talking about the Fernández Ochoa brothers.

-Exactly, they go hand in hand. It is a family that has achieved two of the five medals that Spain has. In addition, Blanca was the first medal for the country from a woman.

-In fact, when Blanca achieved her bronze, you were 2 years old and you were already skiing.

-There I took my first, not my first steps, my first slides. I haven’t taken off my skis since. They are an extension of my body and I will always have them. Even the day I retire I will continue skiing because it is what I like.