Maialen Chourraut A silver is hung, his third medal, the third from Spain
Canoeing Chourraut's "desperation" to choose a new kayak: 25 models and many skids
"I don't believe it, I don't believe it. I don't care, really, I don't care, if I'm fourth I'm happy," Maialen Chourraut confessed to her husband and coach
Xabi Etxaniz
in the first hug of many, many, many that would come later, and, although the paddler was already satisfied, he knew about the medal that was to come: "Yes, Maialen, yes, you already have it." They were in the white tent that the Tokyo Games had placed in the Kasai channel for the first three classified to wait for the rest to come down and until then they had both held back.
After competing, Chourraut got out of the canoe, looked at his time with wide eyes, almost in 'shock' and was placed where he was told, in the place of the fastest then. Etxaniz arrived a little later, running with her son
Pau
, from a previous relationship, fourth in the last Junior Canoeing World Cup, and they both stood in front of her, right next to the camera, to shout a single adjective. : "Incredible! Incredible!"
We had to wait for two rivals to pass and the third, the Italian
Stefanie Horn
, who also did not exceed the time of Chourraut, canoeist and technician, husband and wife, they did not wait any longer. His hug, pure emotion, was a surprise for the Japanese volunteers, who did not understand such a show of love in public, and a cause of syncope for those in charge of the organization, who thought about the pandemic, "please, please, distance , distance ", without knowing that they were talking to two very close friends.
Curiously, when the two merged, Chourraut still had not secured his third Olympic medal after bronze at the London 2012 Games and gold at the Rio 2016 Games, but ... "But I didn't care anymore, I really did. That I did not care. When I realized that I was there again, at 38 years old, fighting with these jabatas, which are very fast, I thought: 'You have already won.' If I finished fourth, fourth, but all that We have spent the last years it has been so hard and so hard that I have not waited to celebrate. "
But Xabi did. Although after the first hug he already burst into tears, the performance of the German
Ricarda Funk
, faster than Chourraut, finally gold, multiplied his nerves, made him start circling in the same square meter and only when the Slovak
Eliska Mintalova
and the podium was confirmed, the coach was unleashed. Silver or bronze, it hardly mattered anymore. The Australian
Jessica Fox was yet to get off
, who could not with the Spanish either, but even before that, Etxaniz and her son Pau were already getting rid of their mobile, flip-flops and accreditation.
They were going to jump into the water, they were going to jump into the water.
And, although they had to wait a long time, too long, as several leaders wanted to congratulate the canoeist, they finally did.
"Maialen, hand! Give me your hand!", The coach shouted, who wanted to get away from the crowd that was already accumulating and immerse himself in its middle, the water, so that he could kiss his partner and join all together, Chourraut , Etxaniz and Pau, in a last hug before the whirlwind of questions from televisions, radios and newspapers.
The TAC in 2017
"I have come to these Games proud of myself, without the pressure that I had until the Rio Games for wanting to win an Olympic gold. That pressure weighed heavily on me: when I got it, when I was finally an Olympic champion, everything came out. All my life I had been demanding, demanding, demanding and when I returned from Brazil I had many injuries, I suppose that it was the result of so much accumulated tension. In recent years I have fallen and I have gotten up many times. I have fought a lot and this medal ... Ugh I do not believe it, "admitted Chourraut and his coach detailed more about the ordeal of pain lived from that summer 2016" until the summer of 2018 more or less.
Maialen Chourraut celebrates her silver medal.AFP
"Just when she arrived from Brazil, after giving her body a lot of power, she was blocked from the back for several days. Two months later, in October 2016, she began to suffer dizziness, had several episodes during 2017, and when they already found the This way of solving, with some exercises that he did in bed, he began to feel pain in his ribs. We did not know what it was, we did not know what it was and in the end, with a CT scan, we discovered that he had a fissure ", Etxaniz said that he only wanted to put in value what has been achieved by his ward. "She has fought it so much, but so much," she repeated and recalled that together with Fox, a bronze medalist, she became the first canoeist with three Olympic medals.
Then the two of them were looking for a little moment to talk, just a moment, more than as husband and wife, as coach and pupil, to be able to dissect the descent and recognize that, in a channel as complicated as Kasai's, seniority led to success.
Many of his rivals, such as those who ended up accompanying him on the podium, Funk and Fox, are taking canoeing to another level, approaching the times of men, descending at astonishing speeds, but Chourraut made the experience count.
"And it has not been the best possible descent, eh, but I have known how to play my cards," analyzed the third Spanish medalist at the Tokyo Games.
One more edition, the medalist that never fails.
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