MADRID, 6 Ago. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Spanish skateboarding coach, Alain Goikoetxea, is clear that facing the Paris 2024 Olympic Games as “a brutal experience” is the best formula for his pupils, who will be back in action from this Tuesday with Julia Benedetti and Naia Laso in the women’s competition in the Park modality.
“First of all, I hope they have a great time, they have a great experience because it has been hard work and a long road to get here. At the Olympic Games, it is already a great reward to be able to enjoy them. And of course, go out with everything and do as well as possible, and see what we find,” said Goikoetxea in an interview with Europa Press.
“But come on, I don’t think there’s that pressure like when you have to qualify. So, that’s why I think what they have to do now is really enjoy themselves,” the Spanish coach reiterated. “In reality, you’re going to do your best. What’s going on? Skateboarding is a sport in which, in the end, making a mistake, or not doing a trick right, can put you in last place,” he warned.
In this sense, Goikoetxea has highlighted the concentration. “We are aware of this. That is why, in the end, you say ‘I’m going to go to win, to win, to win, to win…’. Of course, we all want to win a medal, we want to go for everything, but you understand that it is very volatile,” he indicated.
He then assessed this last Olympic cycle, which lasted three years instead of the usual four. “It has been shorter, but the truth is that the last stage has been very intense. The last two years have been, wow, especially this last one has been very intense,” Goikoetxea recalled, referring to a shorter period of time following the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Between the many training sessions we’ve had and all the competitions, the truth is that it’s been quite intense. Everything has been quite compact in the final stage. The issue of injuries has hurt us a bit. A possible injury or an injury, well, suddenly it could condition you a lot. In the end it was very decisive in all these last championships we’ve had,” said Goikoetxea.
However, the coach of the skating team has said that his pupils “are learning a lot from all this”, both “sportingly” and “technically”, as “they are learning tricks” and in his opinion “they are very good”. “And then, of course, life is putting them in a brutal learning situation: travelling around the world, starting to be professionals, they have to deal with emails, making decisions, etc.”, he argued.
The coach was also grateful to spend so much time with such talented skaters despite their young age. “The truth is that it’s great, and it’s really fun, in the end you’re travelling with young kids and it’s really fun,” Goikoetxea insisted on the subject.
On the other hand, she welcomed the increasing importance of her sport in the Olympic programme. “I honestly saw it coming, since it entered Tokyo and once I saw the results and the media impact it had and a bit of the message that ‘skate’ sent to the world, I thought: ‘This is here to stay’,” she admitted.
“It was clear, it was clear,” added Goikoetxea, before removing any doubts about the permanence of ‘skate’ in future Olympic events. “From my point of view, I have always thought that it was here to stay,” concluded the Spanish coach.