Queralt Castellet wins the first medal for Spain in the snow in Beijing

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I was a rookie in Olympic snow.

In Vancouver 2010 a fall in training before the final ruined the party when she was one of her favorites.

In

, an error in the first races of hers relegated her to the penultimate position.

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she was closer to her, with good tricks on the descents, although not enough to climb from seventh place and return home with more than an Olympic diploma.

was her moment.

Queralt Castellet

(32 years old) made history.

He did not fail and flew like never before in the most important appointment of his career.

The

from Sabadell has won the silver medal in the snowboad halfpipe test,

and the fifth in the history of Spain in a Winter Olympics.

After getting on the podium in all the races he has contested this season,

But it had to be proved in the artificial snow at Snowpark Genting in Chongli, a district in the mountains of Zhangjiakou, the farthest host of the Winter Olympics, almost 180 kilometers from host Beijing.

After passing the qualifying in fourth position, Castellet wanted to get on the podium.

She was one of the favorites to do so, in addition to the Spanish asset to add another metal to the poor Spanish medal table in the 86 years that the national team has been participating in the Winter Olympics.

In the first manga he did not pass 69.25, being very far from the medals.

He had to go back and let go more in higher flights.

He did so in the second round, in which the seven judges awarded an extraordinary

his board-grabbing spins before landing again on a 220-meter-long, 22-meter-wide halfpipe track - wall to wall. - and an interior height of the walls of 7.2 meters.

The Spanish, with two and a half turns in the air, and another on her back, plus some sensational diagonals without the board shaking, placed second among the 12 finalists.

In the third round she did not risk (78.25) after her main rival for silver, the Japanese

, fell in her last exercise and could not overcome the great score of the Spanish in the second round.

At last Friday's opening ceremony, Castellet was the flag bearer for the Spanish delegation - along with

l, who competes in skeleton - for the second time in her career.

The athlete from Sabadell told this newspaper that she was reaching her fifth Games in her best moment.

She knew that at 32 years old this would probably be her last chance to fight for a medal by competing in good shape at the Games.

He charged batteries and morale before landing in China winning silver at the X-Games held in Aspen.

She was the great bet of the Spanish team to crown her record with an Olympic medal that she had resisted.

She already has it.

In the snow in Beijing, she could only beat Castellet the great favorite for gold,

SECOND GOLD FOR KIM

The 21-year-old American of South Korean origin met the forecasts and went well over her rivals, leaving the gold sentenced from the first round, which ended with three complete laps that gave her a score of

.

Kim climbed back to the top of the podium, as she did in PyeongChang 2018.

The champion has been in fine form since returning to the snow after breaking her right ankle and putting competitions on hold for classes at Princeton University.

Before the age of 16, the

had already become the only athlete in X Games history to win three gold medals.

At just 17 years old, she swept the women's halfpipe event in PyeongChang becoming the youngest woman to win an Olympic snowboard title.

Her stellar year was capped off when she was listed among the 100 most influential people of 2018 by Time magazine.

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