47-Year-Old Judoka Wins Medal – Spanish Judo Comeback

That conviction of being accompanied has been essential for Marta to build a career as brilliant as it is long-lasting. In Paris 2024, few were betting on it. At 47 years old, many thought that his best moment was behind him. But Marta transformed doubts into motivation and ended up winning a bronze that thrilled the entire sports world. It was his fourth medal at the Games, a reward that some found surprising. Not for those who know her closely. Álvaro Gavilán, a former teammate on the tatami and today part of his team of trainers, sums it up clearly: “Winning a medal at that age is an example of perseverance, of overcoming, of wanting to continue fighting, of dedication as an athlete and of never giving up.”

For Marta, Paris had a special value. “We had had a very complicated cycle,” he recalls, after having lost part of the institutional support for different reasons. “When you are a person with a disability you are used to fighting for everything and I wanted to show that I could win the medal.” Marta took the podium in Paris with the spirit of someone who had never stopped believing, confirming that her story is not only about medals, but about effort and faith in others.

Staying in the elite today requires training and discipline, but also an extraordinary ability to balance your daily obligations. Marta Arce is not only a judoka, she has her job and a large family, with a partner and three children. Your vigor and willpower are multiplied by having to combine training with daily routines. But there is something that is deep inside her and that helps her overcome any doubt: “The people around me know that I need to do judo to be emotionally stable.” In this mechanism, your partner occupies an essential place. Marta defines him as her great ally, the one who supports the logistics of a life that combines school, training, travel and work responsibilities.

His testimony insists again and again that behind each medal there is much more than hours on the tatami, there are shared sacrifices and a circle that pushes when strength falters. To achieve this, the support of entities such as CaixaBank is also essential. And it is because his commitment to sports is not limited only to the sporting result. The entity contributes to making stories like Marta’s possible, supporting a model of collective and human effort that inspires far beyond competitions.

Those who train and share daily life with Marta agree on something: her ability to keep the illusion alive. Always. Her coach, Marina Fernández, sums it up with admiration: “From Marta I have learned that you can continue to have enthusiasm for something you have been doing all your life, that perseverance bears a lot of fruit and a lot of satisfaction,” she explains. And that energy, far from fading over the years, multiplies in each new stage. “Everything about her,” Marina continues, “is a reflection of her work, her perseverance, her joy. When she finishes a training session she always says ‘what a great time I had’. For me she is a reference,” she concludes.

Álvaro Gavilán adds another facet of his essential personality in his life and in sport in general: “He is a very fun person, very hard-working. He loves to learn; despite his experience, he always asks how to do something, how to improve his technique.” Because their success is also in humility and the permanent desire to be better. “Even if things went wrong, he is always thinking about how to improve,” Álvaro tells us. This ability to improve is implicit in any elite athlete. Marta knows very well the characteristics that define a good judoka: “perseverance, patience, discipline, camaraderie, joy and respect.”

And each of these singularities is shared with CaixaBank, which is very aware of its importance so that stories like Marta Arce’s become known. Because support is not measured only in resources, but in giving visibility to those, like Marta, who represent with their example the deepest values of sport: perseverance, enthusiasm and respect. Thanks to this support, it is possible for professionals to focus on what is truly important: training, competing and conveying that there are no limits as long as effort and passion are added to talent.

All of this makes sense when Marta steps on the tatami. There he finds, he assures, “maximum happiness and fun.” But not only that. “It has also given me real inclusion, normalization, the feeling of being one more in an environment where I practice something at the same level as others,” she tells us. That equality, achieved with small adaptations that do not change the essence of the fight, has allowed her to feel fulfilled. “It makes me feel good about myself and the world I live in,” she says.

There is something that Marta does not doubt when she gets on the tatami. “I consider myself an athlete, neither an athlete with a disability nor anything else,” she highlights, an athlete who trains in a High Performance Center for many hours each day and who fights for her dreams like any other elite professional. Someone who, with his efforts, has managed to reach impressive heights over two decades. “I am proud of all the things we have achieved and I am happy to be able to continue doing it despite my age,” she says. Being aware of this makes you happy. “I am very lucky because I can continue enjoying what I like most, which is judo,” she says.

We have seen it. This path of effort, perseverance and passion is not traveled alone. Thanks to the support of their closest environment and entities such as CaixaBank, Marta and other Paralympic athletes can focus on training and competing, while their stories reach society. Your support helps athletes like Marta become role models that inspire, promote equality and show everything that can be achieved with talent and work. And what about disability? “That,” Marta Arce tells us, “is another story.”