Pablo Herrera: “In Athens we were not favorites either and we gave a surprise”

The beach volleyball player from Castellón Pablo Herrerato compete this summer sixth Olympic Games in Paris 2024where he will retire as a professional, ensured that he continues with the same motivation with which he won silver twenty years ago in Athens and warned that in 2004 they were also not favorites and gave a surprise.

Herrera explained, in statements to EFE, that the big goal of the couple he formed with Adrián Gavira from Cádiz is to pass the group stage “and then try to break the barrier of the round of 16”which prevented him from having a medal option in all Olympic events after the silver in Athens, achieved with Javier Bosma from Girona.

However, the beach volleyball player is focused “above all enjoying and savoring every point”because if they manage to enjoy every moment of every match, they can “give a surprise”, even if they are the last moments as a professional for the player from Castellón.

So, he emphasized that he came with great enthusiasm because his family will be with him in Paris “and being at the Olympic Games is also very exciting for the little ones,” because, in addition, they have the climax their farewell.

Herrera will be Paris 2024 beach volleyball player with the most appearances in an Olympic eventby surpassing the Brazilian Emanuel Rego’s five, surely his executioner in the last played twenty years ago in the Greek city.

“Being able to close the Olympic cycle from Athens to Paris with a qualification is a dream, that my family may come… but you never know, because in Athens we are not favorites either and we gave the surprise and who knows, because the team has been playing very well, the injuries are aside and we continue to concentrate one hundred. percent to give the maximum,” he stressed.

When asked why he keeps the sport, a thoughtful Herrera explains that he keeps the good but also the bad, because it’s where he learns and gets the best out of it to become a better person. Also, on the values ​​that “sport teaches: respect, commitment, which is key, and gratitude to a sport that has given me the option to meet many countries and many people.”

Finally, he also commented, when asked why he feels this way as his retirement day approaches, which is this year “That’s it, because every tournament has been a farewell to that place”so he said he wants to take away “the best feelings, the best positive memories and give his best in every remaining game knowing it could be the last.”