A tragic halo, of premature death, seems to involve the Fernández Ochoa, the family, the lineage, the great history and the best memory of Spanish alpine skiing. Francisco , Paquito , was 56 years old when he had cancer. The same age as Blanca when life, that "useless passion", stopped for her.
In the numerous offspring of the Fernández Ochoa (seven brothers), Blanca, 13 years younger than Paco, was, much more than Juan Manuel, Luis and Lola , with whom he lived, the heiress and maintainer of the glory of the Olympic champion of special slalom (according to the terminology of that time) in 1972. In the Japanese scene of Sapporo. Far away, so, so far from Madrid, from Cercedilla, from the Puerto de Navacerrada, from the Sierra de Guadarrama, where Blanca grew up. And from the Aran Valley, where he laughed. So far in geography and customs. But so close forever in the mythology of Spanish sport.
Blanca belongs, like her brother, to that pioneer category of our sport. But while others of those precursors have had successors that have even surpassed them, the Fernández Ochoa remain lonely in their snowy Olympus. Blanca's sacred mountain was closer to Spain than her brother's. In France. In Albertville, in that magical Olympic year of 1992.
His bronze medal in the Slalons lacked twin mirrors. María José Rienda , who participated in five Olympic Games (Blanca, in four), won six World Cup events, for four of Blanca, which also added 23 podiums. It is true that the grenadine was mistreated by very serious injuries. But, in turn, the Madrid met a particularly bitter misfortune four years before the Albertville Games, in Calgary (Canada), in 1988. He had won the first sleeve of the giant slalom. In the second he fell.
Skiing was a predestination for her, although as a child she was afraid of icy slopes, like those swimming stars who confess the terror that, in their childhood, caused them water. But the family atmosphere prevailed, because Paco, the firstborn, was Paco. But the patriarch of the family was a janitor in the ski school that the Spanish Federation had in Navacerrada. And the matriarch, the cook.
The author of these lines covered for this newspaper the Games of Albertville, in which Blanca was the flag bearer, and feels again in his hand the weight not only material of the medal that the skier gave him for a few moments. That woman was serene, but radiant. He had responded to the family challenge and the national expectation. The weight of the surname was now light.
Withdrawal
His career was full, Blanca retired at age 29. When he won the medal, he had two months to complete them.
He began a somewhat erratic life that led her, hired by some companies, to travel giving talks, telling their experiences and giving coaching lessons. She was the director of an event company called Golf & Win (she loved golf) and worked in a company, Star Dreams, dedicated to advising executives and executives.
He taught skiing in Navacerrada and Baqueira, ran family sports stores and appeared on various television programs. Realitys or similar as, in Antena 3, Survivors and Splash, famous to the water . And, on Basque regional television, The conqueror of Aconcagua and The conqueror of the end of the world . Lately I worked as a personal trainer with self-stimulation techniques.
His married life also experienced ups and downs. He married, in 1991, in first nuptials with Daniele Fioretto , technical director of the national team, whom he met with 14 years and with whom, later, he intimidated in the long concentrations of the selection in Spain and abroad. They separated in 1994. From their subsequent union with David Fresneda , owner of a diving school in Murcia, their two children were born. In 1999 Olivia , international rugby. In 2000, David . The marriage divorced stormyly in 2007.
The Spanish sport awarded Blanca, in 1983 and 1988, the Reina Sofía Award for Best National Athlete. In December 1994 he was awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Order of Sports Merit . Its importance in our sport is that of a different person. Only.
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