Diego García Carrera and the fight for your sport to survive: "Doctors recommend walking fast. But how is walking going to disappear!"

LUCAS SÁEZ-BRAVO Madrid

Madrid

Updated Thursday, January 25, 2024-19:17

As a good son of a journalist - his father is the famous presenter of Radio Nacional

Ciudadano García

-,

Diego García Carrera

(Madrid, 1996), is a storm of concerns. Physical energy of more than 20,000 steps a day to achieve a dream - "I wouldn't sign a world bronze, but an Olympic medal? What it entails is so great..." - and intellectual energy to obtain a degree in Business Administration, play the trombone since the age of seven in a conservatory, being the sports director of the International Walking Grand Prix and, since last August, a member of the Athletes Commission of the International Athletics Federation, with the aim of defending a specialty, the march, who "has been with the noose around his neck." He attends El MUNDO before his rehearsal with the jazz Big Band, an oasis of disconnection in his spartan training routines.

Aren't you one of those who looks at the steps you take each day on your cell phone? Yes, yes. I give more than 20,000 on average. You add active life to training... It's a good meter. I recently read that not only the number of steps is important, but also the speed. That is, doctors recommend walking fast. The walking is incredible, how can it disappear! Have you ever gotten tired of walking? Sure. In training I walk more than 100 kilometers a week. I usually don't feel like walking anymore. When my friends suggested doing the Camino de Santiago, I sent them that way. I'm not going to spend my non-walking vacation walking. The rest of the day I don't worry about doing more sports, because it is almost counterproductive. Have you seen the sport you practice in so much danger? We live in times of many changes, in the world of entertainment, on television, in sports... This It makes established sports have to reconvert. That review in the case of athletics has unfairly singled out marching as one of the problems. It has happened because in certain very influential countries, such as the United Kingdom or the United States, there is no movement. For a while there has been speculation about the possibility that the march would be removed from the Games and we have been with the noose around our necks until a few weeks ago when the president of the International Athletics Federation, Sebastian

Coe

, announced that it would be in Los Angeles. It is very good news, but we have to continue. How does World Athletics convince you? I embarked out of fear that countries in which there is no tradition will represent the march and the discipline will end up falling because we are managed by people who do not know us. . The first step was that we not go out through the back door. And the second was that we would not be 'nominated' again. And for that a series of advances must be made, the first incorporating technology to eliminate criticism of subjectivity in the judgment of the technique. Furthermore, we have to make walking competitions more attractive in major championships and on the world circuit.

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How do you personally handle those moments of uncertainty? Last year was very frustrating. The rumors, the uncertainty about whether the march would continue in 2028, coincided with the fact that overnight they changed a 35-kilometer Olympic test for a mixed relay that has nothing to do with it. A very high percentage of the walkers, the background profile, was left without proof. They have been complicated months, but they have also helped us all organize ourselves and value the good things about this sport. Taking us away doesn't benefit anything. Sell me walking. It's the sport that most people do, walking. As quickly as possible in this case. And increasingly global: it is present in continents like Latin America, with very good marchers and tradition, which is almost nowhere to be found. In Asia with great force, in Oceania, it was important in the Soviet world and is very traditional in Europe. At the World Championships in Budapest, the top 12 were each from one country and the six international athletics federations were represented. And it can be celebrated anywhere, cheaply. Here in Madrid we have tested it on Gran Vía and at the Paris Games it will be at the foot of the Eiffel Tower. We only need a 500 meter circuit. Why are we Spaniards so good at 'walking fast'? This begins when

Llopart

wins the first world gold for Spanish athletics (1978). Since then the knowledge has been transmitted. Llopart continues to teach

Marín, Marín to Massana, Dani Plaza, Chuso Bragado

... They are linking with each other and the chain has not been broken. And last summer four world golds with

María Pérez and Álvaro Martín

. The internal competition is brutal. We see how rivals from other countries that are worse than us sportingly have been enjoying their status as fixtures for the Games for many months. We are already three Spaniards with a minimum and I think two more are going to achieve it. This year we have to be at our best from the beginning, from the Spanish Championships in February (Zaragoza) and then the Spanish Mixed Relay Championships (Valencia), something completely new for us, there may be surprises. And before Paris there would be the European Championship in Rome.

García Carrera, marching in the athletics module of the CAR of Madrid. SERGIO ENRIQUEZ-NISTALMUNDO

What will he do in Paris that he couldn't do in Tokyo? It happened to me like those who return from Operación Triunfo, who realize everything when they leave the academy. I was there imagining what was coming to Spain, reading the newspapers and seeing that you are on the front page, but since there were no people it seemed like an athletes' camp. In Paris I would like to experience it more from within and, above all, for a good result to come out. I recently saw a video in which they asked me before going to Tokyo if I would sign a bronze. And I said no. If you now ask me if I sign a bronze as my best result in a World Cup, I would still say no. But in the case of the Games, what a medal means is so great... if they gave me the opportunity to get a bronze, I would take it. How do you handle the stress of preparing for the Games? It is something unsustainable. If you don't take it from the point of view that you agree with and like everything you do, I can't even stand a three-week concentration. I have worked for five years with a psychologist. I use a lot of tools that she has taught me. I manage everything much better. I have realized the importance of the head in a competition. I have talked about it with medalists, they agree that the difference is made by the head. You need a very solid training base, which only a few have and without that there is nothing to do. But then your mental capacity on the day of the competition is much more important, whether you have trained a little more or a little less. What goes through your head during a race? In that hour and 20 there are psychological obstacles, with lactic acid in the clouds, which you have to overcome. When you have 40 minutes left and you're dead, you think about everything. I try to eliminate negative thoughts and let time pass until a positive stimulus comes. It helps me to think that there are still options to achieve something. As long as I see that the effort is worth it, it becomes easier for me. If I see that the fish is sold, I break down. And then there is the way to face the competition. If you go with fear, bad business. You have to go eat those who are afraid, with a confidence that nothing stops you. And what is your mental capacity like? Traditionally it has been very good and in fact it has been my main strength and I have always achieved much higher results of what my training said. But last year was bad, minus some flashes like the Olympic minimum. I was a little disorganized, I did too many things and all the stress and frustration regarding the future of our sport... Which was a responsibility, because I believe that impossible things do not exist and it was in our power to ensure that the march did not disappear. Fighting so they don't take away your sport keeps you up at night. Why did you decide to leave? By chance. A friend told me, 'try marching, because this year everyone is very bad.' I was 14 years old, I went to that Spanish championship, I came 11th and I liked it a lot.The second race I improved four minutes. I understood athletics by trying a specialty every day. Can you make a living from athletics? I can make a living from athletics, thanks to the fact that I have been at the top in the world for several years. And that, together with the fact that my sponsors have given me stability when things have gone badly for me, like last year. It is true that we have to go year by year, because we depend on the variable, on the result. You can do that when you are young and don't have family responsibilities. And when you are passionate about what you do, but it is not sustainable over time when things are not going well for you. When the level drops, things get complicated. In the 90s you earned much more. For doing athletics. Now you have people who are social media stars who earn much more money than the best. Is that why we see more and more athletes with university degrees? Now most of us study and have an outlet. That helps you face the competition from another point of view, enjoying it. I know that, in the worst case scenario, if I have to get to work like my fellow students, nothing happens. Before it was a crossroads and complicated situations arose about resorting to doping or what to do when withdrawal comes. We know that we are not going to live off this for the rest of our lives, no matter what. Should athletes give their opinion on politics? It is not recommended. Unfortunately, whatever you say, in Spain you are going to have half the country against you. The best way to get everyone to like you is to say nothing. Because the half that hates you, hates you more than those who are in favor. But, like everyone, we have priorities and an opinion on things. I have respectfully posted some political comments on social networks, but I don't want to get too involved. People are quick to label you on one side or the other. And those who cross the border tend to become radicalized, and are not healthy. We should be able to give our opinions with respect and have our ideas respected.Before it was a crossroads and complicated situations arose about resorting to doping or what to do when withdrawal comes. We know that we are not going to live off this for the rest of our lives, no matter what. Should athletes give their opinion on politics? It is not recommended. Unfortunately, whatever you say, in Spain you are going to have half the country against you. The best way to get everyone to like you is to say nothing. Because the half that hates you, hates you more than those who are in favor. But, like everyone, we have priorities and an opinion on things. I have respectfully posted some political comments on social networks, but I don't want to get too involved. People are quick to label you on one side or the other. And those who cross the border tend to become radicalized, and are not healthy. We should be able to give our opinions with respect and have our ideas respected.Before it was a crossroads and complicated situations arose about resorting to doping or what to do when withdrawal comes. We know that we are not going to live off this for the rest of our lives, no matter what. Should athletes give their opinion on politics? It is not recommended. Unfortunately, whatever you say, in Spain you are going to have half the country against you. The best way to get everyone to like you is to say nothing. Because the half that hates you, hates you more than those who are in favor. But, like everyone, we have priorities and an opinion on things. I have respectfully posted some political comments on social networks, but I don't want to get too involved. People are quick to label you on one side or the other. And those who cross the border tend to become radicalized, and are not healthy. We should be able to give our opinions with respect and have our ideas respected.