MADRID, 3 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Spanish skeleton rider Ander Mirambell aims at the Beijing Olympics “to be as high as possible” and for this he hopes to take advantage of the five days of training available to him in order to take advantage of his “strong point” which is regularity on the downhills and put in one of his “best races of the season.
“The objective is to be as high as possible. There are seven or eight that are very close and the good thing about this circuit is that if you make a mistake in turn 2, the descent ends. You have to be regular and that is one of my strong points, so if I gain confidence these two days and the other three, I use them to test material and take risks in my riding, because I would like to do one of my best races of the season and one of my best Olympic results”, Mirambell said in the wheel of press.
The Catalan will have five days to train, but he will have the handicaps that he will have “40 fewer descents” than some rivals because he was not on the circuit “in October” and not having his coach who “has not been able to travel due to protocol” . “I would like to ‘get wet’ and say that I am going to be between this one and this one, but with only one day of training I have no information,” he remarked.
Mirambell tested the circuit, called ‘Dragon’, this Wednesday. “It’s a bit crazy and I already have a good bruise, but I had a good feeling and I think it was quite positive. It’s not as fast compared to others and the problem is that there are two uphill sections that make the sled stop. You go constantly at a very high average speed and it seems that there is no space, it is more technical than fast and very demanding,” he explained.
For this reason, the Spanish driver, who will compete in his fourth consecutive Games, anticipates that it will be “a bit like a World Cup event”. “Everything is going to be tight and it’s going to be a very fun race up and down,” he warned.
Regarding his classification for Beijing, he acknowledged that the pandemic has caused greater “mental wear” and that they will be “some different Games.” “We have limited coexistence and the human relationship is less, but this has already been happening for the last two years and in the last few months to classify you the demands were very high, I have had to change in the car at minus 20 degrees. You feel bad that there is no public and if they were in Spain I would be sunk that there were no Spanish fans”, he confessed.
Mirambell is “well” in the Olympic Village, which he believes is “quite different” from the others in which he has stayed and pointed out that what has most “impacted him now is the cultural shock”. “There is an abysmal difference with other Games and for those of us who have never been to Asia, it has an impact,” he said.
And this Friday he will have to act as standard bearer alongside Queralt Castellet, a day he is looking forward to. “We will do it with style, art, passion and illusion. We are four hands and a flag, we will do it as it is more coordinated,” he said.
“I hope that Queralt gets the medal, he deserves it, but for me he already has it, being here in his fifth Games is awesome. Whether we leave with three medals or none, we must assess that having 14 athletes with the best is a success and If that ‘little point’ of luck comes out for Lucas (Eguibar) and Queralt, welcome, but the effort to be here is very great,” he said about the options of getting on the podium at the event.