• Withdrawal.Carbonell announces that it will not be in Tokyo 2020
  • His last big tournament, Ona, when you're smarter than the rest

"I explain it directly, right?" The recorder has barely started, but Ona Carbonell does not wait for the typical fading questions. He knows which elephant is in the room and prefers to take it out as soon as possible: why one of the great figures of Spanish sport, the woman of any nationality with more medals in World Swimming (23), announced on September 21 his unexpected withdrawal temporary at age 29? Ok, Ona, explain to us. "Two very close relatives have a delicate disease and that has made me clarify my priorities to focus on what really matters. I've been putting sport above all people for a lifetime and, for the first time, I felt at heart that I had to prioritize my family. That is incompatible with an Olympic year, which is the most wonderful thing for an athlete, but it demands to be permanently traveling and training. Although it has been a very difficult decision, I felt that if I did not leave it I would regret not be where I had to be. My heart and my head were not in the pool. "

How much have you sacrificed to your family during these years? My family has always been for me and I have never been there for her. In any field, being the best in the world means giving up everything. It is like that. I trained 60 hours a week without vacations. I have not gone to any wedding, to any baptism, I could not be there at very important moments for them ... And in a situation as delicate as the current one, you realize that what matters most in this life is the people What do you want and I have missed them. Now I will be. For my family and for my partner, I have been with him for eleven years and we have not been able to have a normal couple life for a minute. Well, to last eleven years like that has merit ... A lot, because it's not even sleeping together. Either I was traveling or, if I was at home, I was so tired of training that all I did was lay down with ice on my legs until bedtime. So I also owed my relationship. In fact, people thought I was retiring to be a mother. Was it a factor in the decision? Not the most important, but it is something that is there. I want to start a family and in the last two years we have begun to think about it more, to talk about how I was going to reconcile it with the synchronized one, because my body is my work tool ... Motherhood is not compatible with my lifestyle in active. So, although it will not be immediate, I have taken it into account when making the decision. Your idea is that the withdrawal is temporary, do you have doubts about whether you will be able to return to the same level? I am very clear that I will return. And I see examples like Serena Williams, my Russian opponent Svetlana Romashina or the Fraser-Pryce athlete, who had a son and returned unstoppable to continue winning. That's my plan. Because I am aware that a sports career has a very early retirement date and I want to take advantage of the time I have. I still have a lot to do in sports ... when my family situation allows me. Every time more elite athletes recognize that they were not prepared for the return to civilian life after the withdrawal and that the transition is very hard. Even if yours is temporary, is it affecting you? They don't prepare us for withdrawal. It is urgent to strengthen the educational part in active athletes. No athlete is prepared for an end that always arrives, sooner or later, by age or injury, but arrives. It is very important not to deny that reality, because you are living in a bubble and sometimes you can not even want to see it. I have experienced the withdrawal of a lot of companions and I have seen many very hard and very bad. That has served as an example and made me aware that you have to think about the day after. I know that one day not far away I will stop being 'Ona the champion' to be just Ona, a normal person looking for life. It is very difficult to assume the withdrawal, but it is essential, because in our country there are very few athletes who will be a lifetime what they are today, such as Rafa Nadal or Pau Gasol. The rest we have to reinvent. What scares you of the retreat? The emptiness scares me. It imposes a lot on me. Athletes have a very special adrenaline, you play months of work in three minutes, which lasts an Olympic final. And you do it as a team, all together for a common goal. Stopping to compete and face life alone generates a vacuum that is the hardest to cope with. That is why I have been working with psychologists for years to be able to assimilate that change; Assume that I will not live on what Ona has been so far, but what I will be next. How do you think about that life behind the pool? You have to educate your ego that a day will come when many people will be better than you in what you do. I have been very lucky to find something that I love and I am very good, now I have to accept that, when I reinvent myself, it is almost impossible that I find anything else that is not even a quarter of the good that I am in synchro . But I have other interests and I will work to improve on them. What interests? I really like fashion design and, since I won MasterChef , I have been hooked on the culinary theme, and that I didn't know how to make a fried egg before. In addition, I am going to take out my second children's book from the Elena Sirena collection and I had fun when I have done communication things ... I have several open channels, but in all of them I will have to learn a lot because, for now, I am only good It's in the water. Although you have two Olympic medals, your relationship with the Games is bittersweet. Those in Tokyo will be the second to which you are not going despite entering your initial plans. Yes, I spent four years of my life going to those of Beijing 2008 and in the end they did not take me. I entered the Spanish team with 13 years, I was in 3rd ESO and was not going to class to train eleven hours a day. Studying alone, living alone, leaving my family ... And in the end, having all the points, they left me out. It was very hard, I hit bottom emotionally and almost fell into a depression, but it helped me to win all the medals that I have achieved later. It was a very important life and humility lesson. I learned that the good ones complain and the best adapt. You only get up if you live with failure. In this golden age of Spanish sport, have we forgotten that losing is normal? It is superimportant to normalize defeat. When I do my campuses with girls, I strongly insist that the only way to win once is to have lost a hundred. I have fought a lot against the fear of failure, because it slows you down to get any challenge, it prevents you from giving everything. Nothing happens if you fail. Do you miss the pool and its routines or enjoy your new pace of life? I'm fine because I can help my people, but I'm still assimilating that I don't do the only thing I've done in my last 20 years of life I know that I will have a hard time, because my dream was to go to Tokyo and I will not do it. Giving up something like that has been very difficult and I will suffer when I arrive, but I think it is a brave decision. As important as dedicating yourself body and soul to something is knowing when to leave it. And it was time, because there is only one life and now all my energy is going to be focused on my family. But I will come back. Stronger. Permanent.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

  • JJOO swimming
  • sports

Balearic IslandsThe fight of a young promise of swimming against the brain tumor

Synchronized swimming: Carbonell announces its withdrawal

Tennis Follow the Garbiñe Odyssey: 109 days without winning a match