«I missed them a lot. I wanted to be back, to share these moments with my partners ». The last time Alba Torrens wore from Spain, in September 2018, hung a world bronze on Tenerife around his neck. Without it, last summer, the account was not stopped, the deed continues, European champions in Belgrade. Precisely in the Serbian capital, great memories, from this Thursday (first game against South Korea, 14.30 h, TDP) look for the ticket to what would be the fifth Games of the women's team that neither the continental crown assured.

And there will be Alba, the greatest talent that ever wore that shirt, in search of his ninth medal with Spain, in which is his second rebirth. Because he had to say enough, ruined by a knee that gave him too much trouble. “It's not that I needed to stop, it's that there was no other. Either he went through the operating room or he would not have been able to continue at the highest level, ”he acknowledges. Nine months away from the courts until he reappeared a few days ago with his team, Yekaterinburg . It is not the first time he has been through something like that. Then, in 2012, it was much more terrible.

Then, with the colors of the Galatasaray, his knee jumped through the air. That image, which hurts to see her repeated, took more than a year to assimilate. Now even presumes, it is part of the process, because if something has Torrens, pure nerve on the track, it is calm outside. Far from triggering any doubt, these nine months have been a restorative not only physical, but also mental for those who are on their way to the 31 and already played 167 games with the national team.

«In an elite athlete there is always discomfort and pain, we expose the body to extreme situations . Here the mental part is very important, which awakens in the hardest moments, ”he reasons. «It goes at a lot of speed, you are following an inertia and you don't stop to think. When one stops things are seen with another perspective. Of these months, what I stay with the most is learning to relativize. It has also been a bit of looking back, ”says Alba, who suffered from the sofa another success of the team of the impossible, the re-edition of the European throne, the seventh race medal, the most difficult yet.

«You have to recognize what this team has done. It goes beyond talent . It has to do with character and values. It is very difficult to be up every year. The key is to put your feet back on the floor in each competition, forget about the past. Know that you have to do it again. For example now, all the medals won do not help us to be in Tokyo. We must forget it, it is our mentality ». Because not even the champion has a ticket stamped to the Games and that is why this Pre-Olympic that serves for the reunion, affordable on paper (three of the group's four pass), treacherous for them. Lucas Mondelo does not have this time any of the pivots that made the difference these championships - neither the withdrawal Sancho Lyttle nor the injured Astou Ndour -: the Balearic Nogaye Lo debuts. «Trust none. It seems a short and easy way, but it is not. They are three very hard teams and you never know. We do not do any account. We prepare the first game as if it were the last one, ”he challenges.

If nothing goes wrong, it will be the third Olympic experience for Alba. In Beijing, with 18 years, "hallucinated with everything . " The absence in London was both a thorn and an incentive for the group. And Rio ... «Of all the medals, if I had to choose one, it would be that Olympic silver. Also by the way it was achieved ».

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