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If you use TikTok you already know her:

Marina González

, what a success.

But if they don't use TikTok...

Six years ago -six years!-, when she was only 14, Marina González, then an apprentice gymnast, a girl who lip-synced with her friends in her room in Malgrat de Mar, opened an account on that social network and video Through video, dance by dance, outfit by outfit, she began to find followers.

There were clips, many clips, with 5,000 or 10,000 views.

Then others with 50,000 or 100,000 visits.

And in the end, in her Olympic debut, at the Tokyo Games, she published pieces that exceeded 10 million 'clicks'.

Today she is the Spanish athlete with the most followers on this social network, 1.4 million, well ahead of even international stars: in her own sport,

Simone Biles

, legend, myth, barely exceeds 400,000.

What's the trick?

"I don't know, really. Since I was little I have always felt very comfortable on social networks because I show myself as I am. I don't pay attention to the followers, I just upload content naturally. For me it's lucky because I can also teach a minority sport like mine, gymnastics, to an audience that doesn't know it. It's beautiful".

From success in networks to harassment

González speaks via Zoom from Ames, the small American city that is home to Iowa State University, where he has gone to study Business on a sports scholarship.

Even there, he assures him, they have stopped him on the street to talk to him about his tiktoks, although he recognizes the less friendly face of such relevance.

Other young athletes, such as the pole vaulter

Clara Fernández

, have already pointed out the fine line between admiration and lasciviousness.

"I have the kindest followers in the world, they send me a lot of energy, they help me and I try to help them. But obviously on social networks, as in all places, there are not only such kind people. That is why it is important to only publish things that you like, videos that you feel comfortable with, and then ignore certain comments. The important thing is to know who you are and who is around you".

RICARDO BUFOLINRFEG

González started in gymnastics as she could have started in any other sport.

In fact, he did.

Her athletics, snowboarding, swimming, surfing or taekwondo, she signed up for everything, she excelled in everything, but one day they saw her trying out somersaults on the tatami and they told her that perhaps it was already clear what was really her thing.

A meeting as a girl with

Gervasio Deferr

, of whom she keeps a photo, served as an incentive, and the rest is already a record: at the age of 16 she was runner-up in Spain and qualified for the team for the Tokyo Olympics five editions later. .

life in america

The date was special, so much so that her grandmother melted down all her bracelets to make her a pendant with five rings.

The appointment was special, so much so that it changed her life: after her came her move to the United States.

"It was a change in culture, but I've gotten used to it. At first it shocked me to see people on the street before six in the morning, that gym sessions started so early, going to bed very early, but in the end I've adapted to the rhythm", explains González, who now also faces a new routine: from the classroom to rehabilitation and from rehabilitation to the classroom.

Before the last World Cup, she recovered from an ankle injury, she tore the cruciate ligaments in her right knee in a bad fall on the balance beam and will spend the next year in recovery.

When he returns, he will have to fight to be in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in this new gymnastics, post-Biles gymnastics, which demands exaggerated acrobatics, which punishes the physique like few sports.

"It's demanding, but you also have to know how to keep your balance. It's important to be clean in the artistic part. I also know that to make the leap, to be among the best, what I need most is to keep a cool head, compete as I train "González ends before uploading his next video.

As difficult as it may be, the hardships of an Olympic athlete can be combined with dancing and outfits, under the gaze of 1.4 million followers on TikTok.

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