JAVIER SÁNCHEZ
Special delivery
@javisanchez
Tokyo
Updated Friday, 23July2021-20: 04
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Opening A sober ceremony, with protests outside the stadium
Cycling The positive of an auxiliary makes the team tremble
Album The best images of the inauguration
Canoeing Saúl Craviotto: "When it's not in fashion, I'll keep my feet on the ground"
Swimming The mystery of Mireia Belmonte 10 days before the Games: "She is not at her best level"
Karate Damián Quintero, the karate fighter-engineer who doesn't like to fight: "I put feeling on the tatami"
Swimming The complaint of Hugo González, the new star of Spanish swimming: "I think about leaving it"
This Spain is another. There are still names from that golden age, from
Pau Gasol
to
Saúl Craviotto
, from
Mireia Belmonte
to
Lidia Valentín
, but in the next 16 days the country's fate at the Tokyo Games will depend on its new icons. Those that are yet to be discovered by the general public, those that have been preparing their appearance for five years. One fact can be scary, if one is inclined: quite possibly none of the champions of the Rio 2016 Games will repeat now.
Ruth Beitia
retired,
Carolina Marín
was injured,
Rafa Nadal
He resigned ... But don't let your spirits fall;
there are grounds for illusion.
A generation born after the liberation of Barcelona 1992 is ready to take over.
His objective is clear: to overcome the 17 Rio medals.
As always, you know, more than 20 will be a resounding success -the record is still 22 in Barcelona-;
between 15 and 20, a remarkable performance;
and 15 and below, a pass or even the dreaded failure.
Beneath the abyss is still the memory of Sydney 2000 and its 11 podiums, material for the pessimists.
Optimists and realists have more reason to believe.
For the optimists
To begin with, there are two safe medals.
In these Games, almost like never before, Spain already starts on two podiums in karate, because in the kata modality, under the control of traditionalist judges, there are very few changes between competitions.
Sandra Sánchez
is called to gold and
Damián Quintero
, silver or bronze.
Both will be protagonists of the glory days of the delegation that, as always, will take place almost at the end of the Games.
On Thursday 5, sign up, super Thursday!
Sánchez competes and there are seven more than clear medal options:
Orlando Ortega
on the fences, the K1 200 by
Carlos Arévalo
and Saúl Craviotto, the K2 1000 by
Paco Cubelos
and
Iñigo Peña
and the semifinals of basketball and men's handball and water polo feminine.
Then only the team finals and the K4 500 will remain, so it will be earlier when the fate of the country is defined.
Thinking about certainties, on Wednesday 28 Niko Shera competes in judo after winning everything and at the beginning of the last week, on Monday 2, Tuesday 3 and Wednesday 4, three days of sailing festivities are expected, especially in 470 and Nacra.
For the realists
With those 10 medals so clear, anyone can think that, from surprise to surprise, Spain can jump the barrier of 20 medals with ease.
But the reality places it around the 17 metals of Rio, one above or one below.
It is true that among the insurance companies we have not counted very possible possibilities such as the shooters
Alberto Fernández
and
Fátima Gálvez
, both individually and as a mixed team;
golfer
Jon Rahm
and his world number one;
the triathlete
Mario Mola
;
the whitewater canoeist
Ander Elosegui
;
the swimmer
Hugo González
, the boxer
Emmanuel Reyes
or the judoka
Fran Garrigós
, which is precisely competing this Saturday.
But it is also true that defeat is part of the game.
Even in the happiest calculations, Spain arrives in Tokyo with some 50 candidates for the three honorary positions and, of those, it must be counted that about a third will finish.
In Rio there were surely more starting possibilities and the last minute absences of Nadal and Marín weigh like a slab.
For the pessimists
They are right: we are all going to die. The delegation not only misses their benchmarks in tennis and badminton, but also laments physical and performance problems from other leaders. To review: Mireia Belmonte has been limited for two years by a shoulder injury;
Lidia Valentín
has had to change to a weight that is not hers; the women's basketball team seems to have lost its joy ... in addition, many golfers and tennis players resigned in pursuit of their professional circuit and the age of Pau Gasol, Valverde or the men's handball team plays against them.
All this without counting that, regarding Rio, there are not the taekwondo players
Joel González
and
Eva Calvo
, the rhythmic gymnastics team or the cyclist
Carlos Coloma
and that even the biggest, the enormous ones, fall from time to time.
Let them tell
Novak Djokovic
that five years ago he lost in the first round against
Juan Martín del Potro
and, as he confessed this Thursday at a press conference, he is here for that.
If things don't work out in the first few days, with Niko Shera, taekwondo players or shooters, Spain could come up with just one or two medals in the last week and go home disappointed.
In any case, the road, for the moment, points the other way.
The Games just started will decide.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
Know more
Pau Gasol
Mireia Belmonte
Rafael Nadal
Jon rahm
Carolina Marin
sports
Spain Olympics
HBPR
Tokyo Olympics Damian Quintero, the karate fighter-engineer who doesn't like to fight: "I put feeling on the tatami"
Tokyo 2020Alejandro Blanco: "Not holding the Games in Tokyo would have been the ruin for the sport"
Tokyo Olympic GamesThe mystery of Mireia Belmonte 10 days before the Games: "She is not at her best"
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