The withdrawal at the age of 27 of Catalina Corró, the swimmer who overcame three brain operations: "I feel relief"

• Interview Joanllu Pons and the crisis in Spain: "I don't know what the rest do to make those times"

A happy ending:

will soon start her fourth year of Medicine at the Autonomous University of Barcelona and in the last control there was no trace of the brain tumor that was detected more than five years ago.

She is no longer a swimmer, not even anything and it doesn't matter.

"I keep everything I've learned. I've had to live a sports career full of operations and that has given me some principles, it has made me grow as a person," he says with 27 years and the history already closed.

A few weeks ago he announced that he was retiring.

The goodbye that dodged cancer, three steps in the operating room and a thousand hours of rehabilitation could not with stress, exhaustion and misunderstanding.

His story demands a biography.

Corró was another promise in the Sant Cugat CAR, in his case arriving at the age of 18 from Mallorca, and later it was something else.

At the 2018 European Championships, with 23, she qualified for the final of the 400-meter medley, and she was considered the replacement for

, there is nothing.

His future was the Tokyo Games, an Olympic medal, who knows.

But before and after she ran into the disease.

At the beginning of 2017, she began to suffer from dizziness, episodes of weakness, epileptic seizures and, given her family history -her mother had undergone surgery for a meningioma on her head-, they did an MRI.

The diagnosis: a four-centimeter brain tumor.

The treatment: 12 hours of surgery, a week in the ICU, 50 staples to the head.

At three months she was already in the pool.

And so much was his motivation, so much, so much, that the following year, in that 2018, she lived the best days of her career.

Signed by the powerful Club Natació Sabadell, before reaching the European final she even beat Belmonte herself in the Mediterranean Games.

the second blow

"They were the best moments, without a doubt, but not so much because of the results. After the first operation, even going to the Games was no longer so important to me. What made me happy was being able to train. Physically it was very difficult for me to recover, I passed I spent a lot of time in the hospital, I had a thousand sequelae from the operation, but mentally I was very, very well, very motivated," recalls Corró about the days before the second blow.

In mid-2019 the symptoms again, the MRI again, the diagnosis again and the operating room again.

The return was no longer so sudden.

And the results were never the same again.

But he did not give up.

Even after a third operation at the beginning of 2020, Corró continued training until this July, moments before retirement, after his goodbye was announced,

When did you make the decision and why? In February I began to see that it would be my last season, that the results did not respond to the hours I dedicated to it, that I had to focus on my studies.

Now I feel relief.

I need to work on my mental health.

In recent times I did not feel accompanied by my coach [

] or by my teammates and it became even harder.

I was losing motivation.

Now Corró assures that it will be difficult for him to swim again.

On the beach, in his native Mallorca, not even kidding: a boat ride is better.

In the pool, only if the back complains a lot.

"I'm not going to get 3,000 meters or crazy anymore," she confesses.

His only connection with the water will be, from now on, the campus that he organizes in Inca together with one of his former coaches, Álex López.

In fact, next Thursday, August 11, the European Championships in Rome will begin and he will not see it either.

The deep abyss in which Spanish swimming is plunged, more so with the resignation of Hugo González to compete in the championship, is no longer his thing.

"In my opinion, it's very simple. Invest in the base, in local swimming, in regional structures. Bet on swimmers, help them, clothe them. Instead, the Federation dedicates itself to hiring friends, coaches from outside who don't even They don't even understand your language. It's a shame," analyzes Corró, already retired, already back.

His career leaves some successes and a happy ending: he will soon start fourth year of Medicine at the Autonomous University of Barcelona and in the last control there was no trace of the brain tumor that was detected more than five years ago.

She is no longer a swimmer, not even anything and it doesn't matter.

Conforms to The Trust Project criteria

Know more

• Articles Javier Sanchez