“Paris 2024 is a train we cannot miss”

In Spain, political, social and economic history is built in restaurants, in a relaxed atmosphere where personal relationships are strengthened after eating delicious food. Within Font-Romeu High Performance Center at Altitude (CNEA), located at 1,800m in the French Pyrenees, Spanish walkers who live concentrated in the weeks before the Games take advantage of the meals to form a support group. “The food here is not much, but we have each other,” he said. Maria Perezdouble world champion of the 20 and 35 kilometer walk in Budapest 2023.

On the table were three other world gold medals, two from Alvaro Martin in 20 and 35 kilometers of the Hungarian capital and of Miguel Angel Lopez in the 20 kilometers of Beijing 2015, both sons of the wisdom of José Antonio Carrillo, one of the best coaches in the world. “Today it’s still delicious, but the other day I didn’t eat anything,” he said. Rachel GonzalezEuropean silver in Munich 2022. They get together to eat around 12:30 pm because “if you wait until later, you run the risk of running out of small things that day,” he said. Cristina Montesinos, fifth in the world last year.

Training in hypoxia at an altitude of 3,500 meters

Spanish walkers concentrate for four weeks at the altitude of Font-Romeu or Sierra Nevada to increase the oxygen-carrying capacity of their blood and improve their performance. Besides living at an altitude of 1,800 meters, in the CNEA gym there is a hypoxia room with treadmills and bikes, managed by Álvaro Rancé, where they can manipulate the amount of oxygen in the air to simulate high intensity training at 3,500 meters. The room also has radiators to raise the temperature and humidity to simulate competition day conditions.
Some sessions are held in the afternoons and bring great adaptations to the body of María Pérez or Alberto Amezcua. We should also not forget the work of nutritionists, physiologists or physiotherapists, who besides taking care of the body of their athletes do very important psychological work. Jacinto Garzón, his coach, also uses high-definition cameras to check the time of contact with the ground and the time of support and obtain metrics that serve as a reference for development and he appreciates​ with famous walkers like Beatriz Pascual or Chuso García Bragado. “The judges are higher than María and after being a double world champion, even more,” said the coach of Granada, who regrets that technology is not used in the competition to have fairer evaluation parameters.

The daily menu of CNEA It was designed by sports nutritionists under very strict parameters that included eating without salt, without fried food, without sauces, with water as the only option to drink and with natural yogurt as the only alternative to fruit for dessert .

“We live a monastic life, away from family and friends, dedicated only to training and taking care of ourselves,” said Martín, who in addition to the success in walking completed a degree in Law and Political Science . What will the Olympic Village be? Will we have air conditioning? are asking each other at mealtimes. Their eyes light up as they think they are about to fulfill their dreams. “I really want to go to Paris. The latter are anything but a Game, in the middle of a pandemic with security measures and, also, competing with Sapporo and not living with other athletes in Tokyo,” he lamented. Maria, who finished fourth and did not medal. The same position that Álvaro occupied and still hurts him. “Paris 2024 This is a train we will not let escape,” the Extremaduran walker repeated to himself. “We will go with hope and the desire to know that we are doing a good job and that everything is fine,” added Martín, who will participate in Spanish Championship in La Nucia He drove seven hours from Font-Romeu, won the test, passed the anti-doping control and returned again to the Pyrenean altitude, as they did. Miguel Ángel López and Raquel González.

The miracle of Cristina Montesinos

That Cristina Montesinos (Terrassa, 1994) will debut at the Games in Paris 2024 at the age of 30 can be considered a miracle seeing all the obstacles she had to overcome to get here. Last year he placed fifth in the world at 35 kilometers in Budapest and this year he earned an Olympic spot by winning the Spanish Championship in Zaragoza and being sixth in Europe in Rome. And all this came after spending eight years injured, with compartment syndrome in the tibia that took a long time to diagnose, became chronic and forced him to undergo surgery several times. He trains alone and works eight hours a day because he has no scholarship or help.
In 2020 the pandemic came, in 2021 he was barely able to fight due to a psoas injury, then he had a thrombus in his leg, suffered from anemia and iron problems that are still ongoing, he broke two ribs, but no he gave up. He will arrive in Paris after just one year as a professional athlete living in the CAR of Sant Cugat, a miracle that would not be understood without the help of his coach Valentí Massana and his technical advisor Josep Marín. He has a privileged head and ability to fight, dedication and sacrifice to advance without limits. A combination that allows him to make the most of his natural talent for marching and Mundo Deportivo recognized him with the Trofeu Campions amb Valors 2023 award.

In Font-Romeu the alarm clock went off at 7 am – except Paul McGrath, who usually rest later to train with Alejandro Aragoneses. Depending on the day, training takes place on the club’s own athletics track. CNEA or outside in one of two favorite places, the Lake Matemale and Puigcerdà. Coaches closely follow their athletes on the bike, carrying supplies and gels and controlling rhythms and technique. Some, like Jacinto Garzón, have their own weather station to know the percentage of temperature and humidity at all times. After regaining energy from eating, it’s time to take a nap and María Pérez can last more than two hours. The rooms are small and very simple, with no closets and a bathroom that doubles as a shower. There is a lot of time to think and that is why, after dinner there is a moment of disconnection in the living room to watch TV or play cards (Uno).

The Spanish march wanted to end Paris half a century of Stakhanovite strives to master a very difficult specialty, with pioneers as remembered Jordi Llopart, who crashed the wall at the 1980 Moscow Games with silver that led others to believe it was possible. Dani Plaza won gold in the 20km of Barcelona’92, Valenti Massana bronze in 50km in Atlanta’96, María Vasco was bronze in 20km in Sydney 2000 and Paquillo Fernandezsilver in 20km at Athens 2004.