MADRID, 2 Ago. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Spanish climber Alberto Ginés said on Friday that if he is at the Paris Olympics “it is thanks to David Macià”, his coach, and that “the main objective, before thinking about a medal, is to qualify for the final”, while the female representative, Leslie Romero, stressed that she would be happy if she manages to be in the final and finish among the top eight.
“For me, 2023 was a year of transition. I couldn’t find myself, I couldn’t find the motivation to just think about the Games. At the World Championships, I had a chat with David (Macià), and it was like ‘if we want to be in Paris, I have to get my act together’, and thanks to David’s work these past three years, things have gone very well for me,” explained Alberto Ginés in a telematic press conference from Paris.
The Olympic champion in Tokyo 2020 thanked his coach for his work, who encouraged him to push himself, without giving up or letting himself go. “In 2023 I was still emotionally hungover from the Tokyo Games, there was no time to rest. It was already the pre-Olympic year, so it was back to full speed, and mentally I don’t think I was ready to take on another Olympic cycle again,” said the Extremadura native.
Ginés faces the Games with the “main objective of reaching the final”, and that once there, “many things can happen”, but he prefers to “take it step by step”. “Just as a month ago I always said that the main objective was to come to Paris, now the main objective is to reach the final and then we’ll see,” he said.
For Ginés, “it has been extremely difficult to get to Paris” after his first chance to qualify at last year’s World Championships was “a disaster,” which makes him take more caution into the Games. “The main objective, which was to qualify, we have achieved it. Obviously, if I finish 20th, I won’t be as happy as if I finish first. But the main objective now is to get to the final, and I think that once we are there, we will be happy,” he stressed.
The Olympic medallist is clear that any rival can beat him if he is not at 100%, and that there will be “another 15 or 20” behind him who will want to take his place. “Once we are here we will give our best,” he said, while recalling that due to the change of format from Tokyo to Paris, he was forced to “start training speed from scratch.”
“We focused a lot on speed and difficulty, and left blocks to one side,” he stressed. Last year, which he described as a “transitional year,” he tried to “suffer through competitions, train a lot and improve.”
Ginés also highlighted that due to the construction of a climbing wall at the High Performance Centre (CAR) in Sant Cugat, they have been able to “improve a lot in recent World Cups both in bouldering and speed”. “I think the work we have done has been quite noticeable, so I don’t know if the change of format benefits or harms me, but I think we have adapted to it quite well,” he said.
He also welcomed the fact that there has been a “drastic improvement” in the training facilities for climbing in Spain, “particularly in the last year”, and that the CAR now even trains athletes from other countries such as Americans and Slovenians, with whom they have shared facilities in the last few days before travelling to Paris.
Regarding the change between these Games and those he experienced in Tokyo, the Extremadura native pointed out that the main difference is “the atmosphere of the Village.” “In Tokyo, I think we were all very afraid of being with people, of catching Covid and not being able to compete. It was like everything else, much more like a bubble, only with our team. Arriving at the dining room, seeing so many people together, interacting much more with Tokyo, is the first thing that caught my attention,” he concluded.
Leslie Romero, for her part, confessed that she is “living a dream” and that “it’s crazy to see so many athletes moving for the same reason” as her. Regarding speed, she is also clear that “it is a very unpredictable modality and anything can happen.”
“You have to go in with a cool head, mentally prepared so that it doesn’t matter who you’re up against, in the end it’s your race against yourself, against your time. I’m not thinking about who to beat, but rather beating myself, going against myself and seeing what happens,” she said, while reiterating that “if I make it to the final” and are “in the top eight,” she would be “happy.”