Maialen’s dream was gone in seconds

Maialen Chourraut41 years old and if he does not say in his fifth and last Olympic Games, he ends his Olympic relationship with the 16-year K1 slalom – it began in Beijing 2008, when he was 25 – with a bitter final in Paris, where he missed a gate as soon as he started and the 50” penalty left him without any podium option.

It seems small if you compare it to the gold from Rio’16, the silver from Tokyo’20 or the bronze from London’12, but being able to stand until the final match is a reward and recognition for someone who has overcome barrier of 40 and played in his fourth consecutive Olympic final.

He passed the qualification without problems but without brilliance, and in the semis he left his presence in the final in the hands of third-party failures. Bad symptoms. He himself admitted that he had to bring out “the most artistic Maialen” to make another move, but this time he didn’t show up. Time is a merciless judge even of legends.

Maialen finished second, a legacy of his discreet ‘semi’, in a single-leg final. And his hopes were dashed: he missed the second gate, the main sin in this sport, a 50-second penalty. He reached the bottom and said goodbye blowing kisses to the stands, where his partner Xabi and his daughter Ane were. Not the best possible ending, but a worthy end to an exemplary journey.

Beijing’2008 was his first Olympic Games. and the only ones in which he was not yet on the podium or in the final, because he finished sixteenth. His performance in Paris ended Gipuzkoa’s love affair with the kayak slalom test, a love that started accidentally when he was young he was enrolled in some summer courses at La Concha beach in San Sebastián and It gradually came together over time, officially sealed when he became part of the Club Atlètico San Sebastián canoeing team.

To fully compete, Maialen had to overcome the fear of drowning, of being trapped in his sunken boat face down; mastering the technique of the so-called eskimotaje, which allows the canoe to return to its original state thanks to a movement of the body, is his balm and the solution to go for it all.

More diesel than turboprop, it learned slowly but learned well, and its appearance, perhaps a bit late by standards, came when it was ready. Mistakes – “more than successes”, as he confessed – were always the fuel that fueled a compulsive perfectionist personality obsessed with preparing for the Olympic Games.

Clearly the strategy worked for him: bronze in London’12, gold in Rio’16 and silver in Tokyo’20. Always with family. With your partner, Xabi Echaniz, who was also his coach for many years. With your daughter Anne, who is now 11 years old and has always, except in Tokyo because of the pandemic, been close to Maialen, the first Spanish Olympic champion mother, when she fought. And in Paris even with his son, Paulwho at 22 years old is also a canoeist in his first Olympic experience

A family that breathes canoeing, kayaking and canoeing, that spent 15 years established in La Seu d’Urgell to be close to the reference whitewater channel of the peninsula, and now, back to their home in Lasarte, does not hesitate to cross in continuing to cross the border train in Pau (France).

This was not the end of Chourraut’s trip to Paris. What remains is the new test of the Olympic program, the frenetic kayak cross, which will take place on August 2, 3 and 4, the qualifications, with the final ending on the 5th It is a mix of all the whitewater modalities on board : race , doors, kayaks, canoes… As someone said, if kayak cross was a movie, it would be Fast&Furious.