“I have had a very good winter because I have accumulated a lot of work,” says the Toledo athlete in an interview with Europa Press
MADRID, 22 May. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Spanish athlete Irene Sánchez-Escribano recognizes that “either you do it spectacularly well” during a year that there are Olympic Games, as is the case in 2024 with the summer event in Paris (France), “or perhaps you don’t have as much impact” in a job like his, which, in his opinion, “continues to be a minority sport” in Spain.
During an interview with Europa Press, he denied misgivings about the media focus on athletics only when the Olympic Games arrive. “It is understood that the big event is the Games and it is the most visible for everyone. But it is true that, if you don’t do well that year, it seems like you don’t exist. There are many people who have very good seasons in the World Championships. World or European Championships and it doesn’t appear anywhere because it is not what has the most visibility or it is not what sells,” said Sánchez-Escribano, a member of the ‘Talent on board’ team sponsored by the Iberia airline on the way. to Paris 2024.
“In the Olympic year we have many more interviews, that’s how it is. Rather than bothering us, I would like us to be made visible every year, throughout our sporting career. For us, at the level of preparation, a World Cup is the same as a Games. I don’t train differently in a Games year because the Games are held that year; at a sporting level, the two competitions are the same because there are the same people competing there. It is true that either you do spectacularly well in the Olympic year or perhaps you don’t have as much impact. “said the athlete from Toledo, a specialist in 3,000 meter obstacles.
“Within the minority sports, we are not the ones that are doing worse in that sense, but it is still a minority sport and we are still quite unknown. Athletics is seen in the Olympic Games and little else, it is what you have more visibility. If you do well and you are lucky enough or have the work you have done to do well in the Olympics, you will have a lot of visibility, but for whatever reason that day; You don’t have your day but in the World Cup the previous year you had done great, people aren’t going to know you because they haven’t seen the World Cup,” he explained.
Against this uncertainty, the support of Iberia has come into play. “I feel super flattered that they wanted to count on me,” she admitted. “That at that moment, which was hard for me, Iberia would like to count on me, the truth is… I only have good words of gratitude,” Sánchez-Escribano alluded to the last-minute injury that prevented his participation in the Olympic Games. Tokyo 2020.
“The fact of having a medium-term sponsorship and that you know that they will be supporting you 100% throughout the entire cycle, is a peace of mind. I wish many brands and many companies would do the same because for us it is important,” he added. The airline.
“What we train every day is 100% physical. Many times when they ask us ‘how many hours do you train?’. But we can’t train that much because what we need is to rest to recover from the training, running is very harmful for many impacts. We know ourselves so well and we reach a level of knowledge of our body, of saying ‘now I know when I am applying this force in the stride, I feel faster, stronger, with more power, etc.’ “In the end, all of these are things that you notice as the weeks go by, as you accumulate training. And I think that more or less we all know when we are good, the clock also tells us,” he warned.
“I HAVE HAD A VERY GOOD WINTER BECAUSE I HAVE ACCUMULATED A LOT OF WORK”
Thus, Rome appears on his horizon. “It’s true that the European Championship is a little early because, with the Olympics, they have had to put it there and it has accumulated on the calendar. I feel good. Many times when I have had better results at the brand level, I have not I have been doing such spectacular training; and then when I have been training so well and I really felt very fine, then I went to the competition and maybe I got a little past. I am training well, I have had a very good winter because I have accumulated. a lot of work at rates that I had not worked in other winters,” he stressed.
“I do believe that, despite it being early, I can have a good championship. Furthermore, I understand that the same thing will happen to my rivals because with the Olympics we will all be in the same situation. I can still polish a little in these weeks , but I think I can have a good championship,” insisted Sánchez-Escribano, who has analyzed the accumulation of requirements to obtain the minimum marks.
“We have talked about it directly and they, the Federation and the coach, have made their criteria thinking about what is best to lead to the best possible selection. Many times we have discussed this issue with those responsible and there are discussions or differences of opinion. Because at the same time In the end, it is true that in my case, for example, that I have the brand, I could be calm without having to think about that extra pressure of going to a rally,” he argued in this regard.
“Or I know, imagine that some discomfort arises and you say ‘I have to take a risk and go compete because I have to get that mark because, if not, they are not going to select me’. Yes, it is an extra pressure, but in the end We have to adapt because it is what it is. We have to try to keep in shape for as many weeks as possible to reach all the best conditions, and that’s it,” he summarized.
In this sense, he trusts that there will be no mishaps. “It would have to be very bad luck that something happens to me in the two years that there are Games at that time,” he indicated about Tokyo 2020. “Perhaps what was most difficult for me to overcome after the injury, once I returned to training and everything, it was the fear of getting injured. I had a very bad time for a few months because every little thing bothered me,” the Toledo woman confessed.
“We constantly live with discomfort. Even if it is something that you know is not going to happen from there or that you have it under control and are treating it, we live and coexist with that. But at that moment for me I did not conceive that a minimum discomfort in The knee that was coming out was a normal thing because anything would mean that I was going to have to stop again, that I was going to miss the next championship…” Sánchez-Escribano recalled.
“Obviously the grief was not being in the Games, but the most psychologically difficult part I had in the long term was knowing how to live with that again, with the aches and pains that are part of our normal life. But they don’t bother me. ghosts at the moment, it is true that you always have the thing to say ‘I hope it doesn’t happen to me again’ Imagine, eight years going to all the championships but precisely the years that there are Olympic Games… I try to take it with me. naturalness, training and living the day, doing what I can to be in the best conditions”, concluded the athlete from Toledo.