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"

Biles

has ever happened to all of us

. It happened to me today in one of the elements of the asymmetric: the head is saturated and there is no need for more. It is as if one day you get out of bed and Suddenly you have forgotten to walk, you have become blank. You have done it all your life, but you no longer remember. It is very difficult to explain. If it happens to you in a normal element, such as mine, you still overcome it, but if it happens to you doing a stupid thing of yours and then you have to do more stupid things ... It is very dangerous. Beyond losing a gold, you can break down 20 places. All the gymnasts have understood Biles ", comments the Spanish

Roxana Popa

in the corridors of the Ariake Gymnastics Center, just after the end of the full contest in twenty-second place, and before the champion, Biles, offered on Instagram the technical details of her withdrawal from the last competitions.

In the team event, in the colt jump, the only element that she completed, her mind was disconnected mid-flight and she landed completely disoriented.

That he was not injured, that he still fell on his feet, was a miracle that can only be explained thanks to his muscles and the many, many times that he has landed on a mat.

"The overwhelm that she felt we have all felt at some time. After experiencing something like this in a device, for whatever reason, because of the pressure of the competition, because of an injury, because of some personal problem, we all think: And now how? When I saw her on the rack, when I saw her go to the locker room, I already thought that maybe she was not going to compete in the asymmetric ones because a lot of security is needed at the start and at that moment she did not have it, "reflects Popa and remembers the moment when the one that she, like now Biles, did not want to compete anymore.

Moreover, when he did not want to know anything about gymnastics.

Injury and return

Born in Romania and Madrid since the age of six, when she came to the city with her mother, as a child she was the brightest promise in Spanish gymnastics until, just before the 2016 Rio Games, she was injured.

The cruciate ligaments of the right knee - the one that is still bandaged - said enough and began a journey through specialists and operating rooms that took two years to cross.

When he did, he thought his sporting life was over.

More than he thought, he wanted it.

But his coach,

Raquel García

, from the Los Cantos de Alcorcón club, insisted and insisted until he changed his mind.

EFE

García herself tells it: "I didn't want to know anything about gymnastics, but I couldn't believe that everything was over for her and, besides, I'm very stubborn. We have a lot of little girls at the club so I invited her to join us. First she would set up the choreographies, then she did the training course ... Anyway, while I was there I invited her to do physical preparation for health, so that she would look better, and one day I told her to try jumping. To my surprise he accepted. And to everyone's surprise, the knee began to respond. And from there to the Games, although the road has not been easy. "

And it hasn't been, not at all.

Popa was in full swing at the beginning of 2020, he had gone to prepare at the High Performance Center in Madrid, he had already participated in a World Cup, when the pandemic arrived.

And that braking in the middle of the race made him feel lacking.

"She was down. She didn't look ready to start over and she was afraid of injuring herself after confinement. I told her to go back to the gym with me, to go little by little and she did. And look, in an Olympic final," says García after that finale is over.

She did it to Popa's disgust, very demanding with herself, angered by some mistakes that cost her several positions.

"It is a privilege to be here"

It was the penultimate, although after the experience, the joy was to have been there, sharing competition with champions like Sunisa Lee, the new leader of gymnastics. "Obviously it is a privilege to be here. Things have not turned out the way I wanted and it makes me angry, it makes me sad, but as far as possible, I suppose I should be happy. This season has been difficult for me because there were no competitions, because It was hard for me to train, and I ended up mentally exhausted. You can be a machine, but when the head does not give ... ", ends and in his reference, again, Biles.

All gymnastics is now attentive to the training that it carries out in a private gym near the Tokyo competition pavilion and if it will be seen in contention from Sunday in the apparatus finals.

"Hopefully, hopefully I can return and enjoy these Games", wishes Popa.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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