MADRID, 7 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The player of the Spanish basketball team Leonor Rodríguez does not hide that the group is “even more eager than normal” to face the Pre-Olympic, which takes place from this Thursday to Sunday in Hungary, because “the prize”, the ticket to Olympic Games, is “huge”, and highlights the team's “hunger” and “know-how” as strengths to fulfill the “dream” of going to the French capital, as long as they are “themselves” on the track.
“With great desire, great enthusiasm and with the challenge in mind, prepared for what is to come, knowing that we are playing for a dream. For now there is no pressure, we know that it is complicated, but if we do our job and play together, although not whether we play very beautifully or spectacularly, we are going to win the games,” Rodríguez said in an interview with Europa Press during the team's concentration in Madrid.
In advance of the start of the Pre-Olympic – with Japan, Canada and the host Hungary as rivals – the guard recalled that to be in the Games “you have to compete and play against the best.” “We know that the prize is high and we know that it will be worth it. Perhaps it will be decided in details, in knowing how to be, in having a cool mind, we hope to do a good job, to represent Spain as we have done, being ourselves I think that without We can certainly achieve it,” he said.
“In the moments when the pressure may come off, we hope that with the experience and know-how of both the staff and the players we will get through those complicated games,” he predicted about the capacity of the Spanish team, of which he stressed his “hunger “. “Hunger to compete, to win, to want to do well, is the key to Spain's success,” he warned.
To this strength he added other qualities such as the “mixture between experience and youth” or the “dynamic” and “joyful” game. “The third quality is knowing how to be there at key moments, having the trust of the person next to you, the person on the bench and the entire staff, who are the ones who make us do great things” , praise.
Rodríguez boasts in her record with the selection of the historic silver harvested in Rio 2016, although she also experienced the weak sixth place in Tokyo 2020. Thus, she confessed that “it is still a dream to be able to go to Paris”, but she feels “privileged” and “with the responsibility of knowing what it feels like” in the Olympic event.
“My only message to young people is to enjoy every moment, to go with your eyes wide open, your ears, absorb the energy and knowledge. I hope to achieve this next dream that is Paris 2024, because it is worth it and it is one of the moments 'top' of the life of any athlete,” said the escort, who dreams “big”, although she does not want to think beyond the Pre-Olympic.
The defeat in the final of the last Eurobasket against Belgium is not a plus for Rodríguez in this important tournament that will give three of the four teams a ticket to Paris, but wearing the national team's shirt is. “Every opportunity is a privilege, a pride and we must take advantage of it. They are Games. They are big words. We are even more excited than normal, because the prize is enormous,” she revealed excitedly.
“I SEE MEGAN GUSTAFSON TAKING GALLONS”
Precisely, the Perfumerías Avenida player wanted to give value to that silver in the continental tournament, even though “you always want to win gold.” “You realize how hard it is to win a medal, regardless of the color. It's a silver that the rest would like to have gotten. Obviously, gold is the best, but I wouldn't change the silver from last year's Eurobasket at all,” he reiterated. she.
In addition, it was a metal that culminated the process “of transition, of learning, of new incorporations” that the team faced after that painful sixth place in Tokyo and without participation in the last World Cup after the weak Eurobasket also in 2021. “That process is part of the success. It has been done with harmony and dynamism, that makes it very easy, we all feel comfortable with this 'staff', that is very important within a team,” said the Gran Canarian.
And one of the last pieces of this growth process is the inclusion in the group of Megan Gustafson, an American player who became a Spanish citizen at the end of last year. In the Pre-Olympic she will play her first matches with the national team shirt, after being part of the November window, but not participating due to injury. “She is going to bring us a lot of energy and is going to help us achieve the dream of qualifying,” said Rodríguez.
“I see her taking those stripes. One of the keys to Spain is that anyone has to go out and contribute and Gustafson's work is going to be important, like giving us points, opening the field, shooting from outside, being part of this dynamic basketball and fun. He is adapting very well and is going to help us,” concluded the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria escort.