Lucas Sáez-Bravo Madrid

Madrid

Updated Tuesday, February 6, 2024-22:15

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The case of

Laura Gil

(Murcia, 1992) is that of an unlikely legend of Spanish basketball. A center not too tall (192 centimeters), without (apparently) much offensive talent and with a career in which she has had to overcome, in addition to insults and scorn, the two most serious injuries: a cruciate and a broken Achilles. To her the obstacles and the rivals who are a head taller than her. "I enjoy a good defense or a good block," she boasts. This week he will exceed 150 international matches, in search of his third Games in the Pre-Olympic Games that Spain is playing in Sopron (against Japan, Canada and Hungary as rivals, three tickets for four), also on the way to his ninth medal, the 17th if those from lower categories are added. And in this too, no one like her.

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"I don't brag about it. But let it serve to vindicate my type of game, which doesn't shine that much. I'm known for my defense, for my effort, for my sacrifice... but it also takes a little talent to get where I've gotten. , right?", he tells EL MUNDO from the Spanish concentration in Madrid, which has also been joined by the nationalized

Megan Gustafson

(previously they were

Sancho Lyttle, Astou Ndour

...), a center to help where presumably the selection always has fewer arguments. Although that doesn't stop Laura from grating a little: "It is always said that Spain's internal game goes with tweezers, but in the end every summer we compete for the top. We will have something."

Gil studies Psychology and throughout her career she has had to apply it to herself, hard times from which she always emerged triumphant. When Spain was eliminated by France in the quarterfinals at the last Tokyo Games, she, unlucky on the court, was the easy target of the networks. "It was hard, because I let all those comments touch me. We are athletes, but we are also people. And there are people who still don't have it very clear. We are the first ones who want to win. It touched me at a time when I was low on confidence and It affected me. I did a reset. I had to turn off all my cell phones and social networks. And the next season I started from scratch," he admits.

Laura Gil.JAVI MARTINEZMUNDO

The next wall, this time physical, was not easy either: a year and a half ago he broke his Achilles when his contract with Valencia had already ended. Laura came to think that this was the end. "When I broke... Poof, it was a click. I didn't know what I was going to do or where I was going to play or who was going to take my dog ​​out. The first concern was if I was going to walk again without pain, then run, jump...", he recalls. 10 months later, already recovered, she packed her bags and went to France to play. Shortly, last summer, she was going to be the protagonist of Spain's silver in the Eurobasket, the first of the

Miguel Méndez

era .

Third stage in Salamanca

"It has always been difficult for me to have my work seen, for many years it has been quite frustrating. I was there year after year, but my type of game was not valued. People who really understand basketball know the importance of good defense, of a good blocking, of a good reading. The simple fact that now there are girls who are starting to play and tell me that they notice me, regardless of where the lights are, is what matters most to me", reflects Laura , now in her third stage at Perfumerías Avenida de Salamanca, with which she was European champion in 2011.

"Good weather, good garden, lemons... and we are good people," he jokes about the success of Murcian sport in recent times of which he feels a part. The lights and

highlights

will not dwell too much on her and the rivals in the painting will rarely look at her from below. But who would want Laura Gil to defend them? "The mentality comes as standard. But in the end the Spaniard always wants to win at everything," she concludes.