MADRID, 1 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Spanish taekwondo player Adriana Cerezo is clear that her “obsession is to be the best” and feel that “people are aware” of how she has achieved it, while she confesses that she “still” dreams of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic final that she lost because ” It will never stop being an opportunity” that she let pass and she will not forget it “even if she is an Olympic champion” in Paris 2024, her greatest “motivation” today.
“I am obsessed with being the best, so between being second, first or fifth in the world, it doesn’t matter to me. I am not a world champion, nor an Olympic champion, when I am, I want it to be because I deserve it and I am the best. I know I can be, but I’m not yet, so my obsession is to be the best. I move up a bit from the ranking, there are people who are more strategists,” said Adriana Cerezo in an interview with Europa Press after an AECC and Ausonia event. .
The Alcalaina, who is only 19 years old, is first in the world ranking and third in the Olympic ranking and already has between her eyebrows “being the best ever”, something that she does not know “how to do”, although it is “in the process to try to get it.” “I am doing everything I can to achieve it, it is my goal. I want to be the one with the most medals, but I want to feel that I deserve it and for people to be aware of the way I have done it, with that work and that illusion,” he wished.
In addition to being at the top in the world, the Complutense can boast this year of having won a bronze in the World Cup in Baku (Azerbaijan) and a gold in the European Games in Krynica (Poland). And her greatest motivation is to “reach the maximum in taekwondo”, responding to “quite high” objectives.
“When your goal is to be an Olympic champion, all the results that come, a Grand Prix, a European Championship, are opportunities to adjust so that when that moment arrives, you are prepared. We all want to win, you don’t even want to lose the badges, but Many times it is quite difficult for me to lose. But my coach, my environment, the first thing they tell me is that all this is a path to get to what we want to do,” he explained.
“WE HAVE TO LEARN FROM DEFEATS, THEY ARE ONLY REALITY SHOCKS”
However, living with defeats in the elite is not easy and “hard”, because “you have your expectations so high or you are so clear about what you want to achieve or you think it is moving away.” “Many times we are winning and you are making mistakes, you are doing things that are not quite right or that you know you can do better, but since it is working for you you do not put a remedy and it is not until you stumble and say ‘calm down, It’s all good,'” he expressed about how he faces the hardest moments.
“When it is not in balance, it is the small details that are going to make a difference. Therefore, many times losing makes you see that you have to change, that you have to improve. You have to be aware that you have to learn from that , they are shocks of reality,” he added.
However, although it has its not so positive side, “competition is engaging.” Cerezo recognizes that she is “hooked on winning and wanting to be the best.” “When you see that everything you have trained has worked out, it is like when you prepare a lot for an exam and you get an A. That feeling, multiplied by ten thousand, you become an addict and you want to get to each championship and win it to have that feeling,” confessed the Madrid native.
One of the moments with the most mixed feelings for the young athlete was the final of the Tokyo Games, held in 2021, the first for her. And when she was aiming for gold, her inexperience in these big events played a trick on her, although she was proclaimed Olympic runner-up. “I haven’t seen the fights of the Games. It’s true that I’ve seen those last seconds a thousand times, because they appear on Instagram, TikTok in a loop,” she joked.
“I want to sit down and watch it, because although losing that final is one of the worst experiences of my life, it is also one of the best. I still dream about that final and I will dream for a long time. Even if I become an Olympic champion, it will never stop. be an opportunity that I missed to be one. But everything happens for a reason and I face it and assume it and I’m not going to beat myself up for it, but it’s true that it stings,” he lamented.
“MY BACKGROUND ON MY MOBILE IS THE EIFFEL TOWER AND PARIS 2024, I THINK ABOUT GOLD”
After that episode, Cerezo admitted to having more “experience” and “maturity.” “We have learned a lot from that, how to manage all the good that comes with these things that many times if you don’t know how to handle it, it can even be negative, and right now I think we are achieving it,” he said, admitting that patience has never been one of his “strengths”, unlike his team.
“The people I have around me emphasize the importance of it. I am learning and now I am much better than a year ago. Enjoying the process means that everything that happens does not sink you, that it is not all like a misfortune or everything like a high of emotions, but simply remembering that you do this because you like it. I like that feeling of winning. There is a lot of room for improvement and that is always good,” he added.
Therefore, the next big step for alcalaín, in a sport in which it is impossible to disconnect during the year due to the large number of competitions, is Paris 2024, an event for which it has already secured a place. “We are going to do everything possible to arrive at an incredible point of preparation. But I am not proposing anything different than if I were not going to the Games. Every championship is something I want to win. Right now we face Paris with all the enthusiasm,” she said.
“I think about the Olympic gold. My wallpaper on my phone is the Paris medal and the Eiffel Tower with Paris 2024, it’s my motivation. It’s very nice that everyone has something to wake up to every morning and that you get up and when you don’t feel like getting out of bed you say ‘okay, but I’m going to do it for this’. Well that’s my, as they say in Japanese, ‘ikigai’, my reason for life,” he concluded.