Plaza, the first Olympic gold in Spanish athletics inspired by Jordi Llopart

The suffering last breath. The accomplice looks at the Stadium. And, most of all, the sincere hug to his coach, Jordi Llopart which Dani Plaza still exudes nostalgia and tears today. He saw some special anniversaries that have passed since the stunning gold at 20 km. of the march that has reached July 31, 1992but this one, the 30-year-old, was the first without his coach, to leave in 2020 at age 68.

“He was the first person I talked to after the race. We gave each other a meaningful hug, At that time, there is no need to say anything… ”, said Dani Plaza with a cracked voice. The Catalan still feels that moment when he embraces himself after crossing the finish line, that kind of intimacy between the pioneers: Jordi, the first Spanish athlete to wear an Olympic medal around his neck with his silver. 50 km walk in Moscow ’80, and his disciple Dani, who took his teacher’s metal as inspiration to cover it with the first Olympic gold in Spanish athletics.

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That hug was also an explosion of pride ‘potablava’, the undisputed name of the locals of Prat, home of chickens, cradle of march roosters, both Jordi and Dani who hail from the town of Baix Llobregat, both gave birth to other march celebrities such as Joseph Marin.

“This is the first major anniversary of the medal without him and I am excited to remember him. The Llopart family has been very important in my life. I started with Moises Llopart (on the Prat slopes) and Jordi is more special, I idolized him when I was young, I started doing athletics for him and then he became my coach ”, explained the Catalan. And with a smile, he remembers what Jordi used to be so sarcastic: “You can’t beat me if you’re not a champion.”

A year ago, Dani Plaza fell from ecstasy to despair in a second due to the once cynical bipolar nature of the march, giving you everything but taking everything away in a flash due to its highly technical uniqueness. “I won bronze at the 1991 World Cup in Tokyo but they disqualified me (by collecting three warnings). I was in the shower when they told me… ”Dani Plaza recalled. “That was why I took Barcelona as a revenge, We do a lot with technique. He became the European champion but that gold was special because it was the first in Spanish athletics and he achieved it in my house “, said Dani, the only Olympic gold medalist in Spanish athletics with Fermin Cacho and Ruth Beitia.

Thorough technical work comes out, though, happy with his ignorance -and blessed ignorance -, Plaza, unknowingly, also says goodbye when he is in physical and mental limitation. “When it came to the last two kilometers of the Montjuïc climb, I was very calm on the technical aspect because, although I already had two warnings, I only knew one thing and with such a rise it is impossible to lift two feet off the ground. What would happen if he knew he had two? Well, I don’t know how I’m going to raise it… ”, Plaza acknowledged, benefiting from an oversight, which is sometimes typical of geniuses.

It was so hot and so hot to come out, like someone taking a nap in a dentist’s waiting room. A cruyffista delirium he vigorously stoned his countrymen, imitating what the Dutch maestro said to his children just two months ago before facing off against Sampdoria in the famous European Cup final. “We left the Zona Franca and I remember sitting very quietly while Valentí Massana and Miguel Ángel Prieto -the other two Spaniards- were very nervous. “Don’t worry, enjoy now”, I told them. Confidence is the deciding factor in winning gold, I am convinced I will do very well. I’m not a favorite, Valenti is more, but I’m confident I can get into the top five. A few weeks before, the three Spaniards had conducted several lactate tests on the CAR and I’m better “, said the Prat walker.

Plaza’s optimism endured more than Barcelona’s lead heat and the sticky humidity of Ciudad Condal –Almost 30 degrees and over 80% humidity–, who wasn’t fooled by the race even after leaving at 7:45 pm Plaza was exhausted and before he could breathe he let out a smile and the weird one as well. At kilometers 12-13 there are five of us: Damilano and De Benedictis (Italians), Chen (Chinese) Valentí Massana and me. I told Valenti: ‘Valentí, we’re medals’, and he smiled at me, “he said.

Plaza left at kilometer 15 and they never caught him again, but finally the hardship happened, surprisingly, so drowned that he had a short cut. a kind of parallel life, cthere are hallucinogenic sounds. “At kilometer 18, came the two kilometers of the Montjuïc climb, which when you touch is impossible. In the middle of the hill my ears were clogged, I started to hear some whistles that I couldn’t understand, Jordi later told me that these were the symptoms before fainting. If I hadn’t been ahead and without people’s encouragement I would have thought to stop for a few seconds Because I have never suffered like this. ” note Prat.

Danny Plaza

Palmares

1

Gold JJ.OO. Barcelona ’92

two

World Bronze Stuttgart ’93

3

Silver European Split ’90

Seed by sweat and overwhelmed with that misery, Plaza didn’t know that, at the same time, there was a sweaty and grieving spectator like him in the last few kilometers. “My parents were very religious and when he competed they put him at home a candle to Mary Immaculate. Games day they put on two to give me more energy and when my parents came to the circuit, about to see me compete, my mom was worried if I left the candles very close to the curtain and sent my father home to see where they were and he hurried back the last 5km to the Stadium. The candles did their part ”, he acknowledges with humor.

Under the enthusiasm of the Olympic Stadium, Dani realized that back to existence, his exhaustion resulted in that tremendous enthusiasm. “I have many difficulties but the end is near. When I enter the Stadium the whistles disappear and I began to be aware, to listen to people. They started applauding me, singing, I knew I could achieve what I never thought possible, ”Plaza said.

But, when the goal was dropped, his only eyes were on Massana, to see the man who had never entered Montjuïc enter Montjuïc: just 300 meters from the stadium, Massana was swept away. The medal, victim of the twisted technical meticulousness of the march: he was shown the dreaded third notice. It was as if he had been kicked out of the door of his own house. “I have a lot of pictures from the last kilometer and a half looking back, looking for Valentí because I have him. up to 20 seconds. When I got to the finish line I turned around and waited for him to hug me. Although, obviously not like him, I am disgusted because we are friends and I know what he is going through because last year I experienced it at the World Cup in Tokyo ”, he recalled sadly.

But, somewhere and at another time, not far away, in World Cup in Stuttgart 1993, The long -awaited hug arrived, the champion Valenti and the bronze Dani. The same date where the sempiternal Chuso Garcia Bragado raised his arms on the 50 -kilometer walk. “Now that I think about it, Stuttgart gave me the medal he lost because of World Cup warnings in Tokyo and his defeat in Barcelona. Valentí later showed in wide strokes how good an athlete he is. there are titles like that world championship and Olympic bronze in Atlantato whom he retaliated ”, highlights Plaza.

The hug to Valentí was made to beg but he could give it to Llopart, the one who made him cry today but the one who made him laugh yesterday. “After the race, in the taxi I told him I had already passed him, but he told me‘ yes, but I was the first to win an Olympic medal, ’” the walker recalled. And, like Llopart, Plaza becomes naughty. when it refers to the strongest gold of Fermin Cacho which was sung after a few days. “Cacho is the image of the Games, his medal is the badge of Barcelona because he competed in the queen event of Spanish athletics and had more media coverage … But I won first. “

The strange superstitions of the Plaza

The beetle and the lucky apple

It’s a matter of faith in Dani Plaza’s parents with candles to the Virgin and a matter of superstition in her aunt Elvira. “Every time I compete, I carry a Chinese beetle in my pocket. I took him to Split and I did European runner-up, in Tokyo I didn’t wear it and they disqualified me and aunt Elvira gave it to me before the race in Barcelona. I don’t have much of a mania, but if they help you, so much the better, ”Plaza admits. And from superstition to CAR’s premonition.

“The day of the race we came late to eat, there was no more fruit and I wanted an apple. Ivan Hompanera, Paralympic athlete (double gold in Sydney ’00), he handed me his apple and told me: “Take mine, this will make you an Olympic champion”. And after winning the medal I looked for him and told him: “Thank you, when I find out, I won’t train, with apples everything is done “, Laughing, Dani Plaza remembered the apple she had bitten, which, in turn, made her enter Paradise.