MADRID, 15 Jun. (EUROPA PRESS) –
More than 480 athletes of 45 nationalities will compete this weekend in Madrid Urban Sports, an event for Víctor Casanovas, its director, “of reference” in the increasingly established urban sports, especially among young people, who little by little they begin to see these modalities as “an alternative to the soccer ball”.
“These urban sports are increasingly having a greater presence and prominence. We are one year away from the Paris Games, which will give it a greater boost. The MUS 2023 is the edition with the greatest repercussion at the sports level to date and a reference event” stressed Casanovas.
He stressed that this MUS will also be “the only international event that this year will have the same endowment of male and female prizes and in all its events the representation of both genders”.
“The objective of this event is also to present the alternative to the soccer ball to the new generations. These athletes are from another
pasta, they want to hang the medal, but if they don’t get it they will hug the winner before anyone else, it’s about community and being part of a group that conventional sports do not share. It is one of the greatest exponents at the level of values of these disciplines,” he said.
Starting this Friday, BMX, Breaking and Skate competitions will take place, in events that will count towards qualifying for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. In addition, the Scooter World Championship will be held, as announced this Thursday at the presentation ceremony carried out in Madrid Río-Matadero with the presence of reference athletes such as the Olympic medalist Daniel Dhers or Mia Catalano, one of the favorites in Scooter, for whom it would be a “dream” to get on the podium in both modalities (Street and Park).
For his part, the Venezuelan, BMX runner-up in Tokyo 2020, appreciated how “happy” he is to return to Madrid Urban Sports because the weather “is perfect”, there are many people who “support” him and there is “great competition”. , although this year it comes in double facet. “Now I am coaching the Chinese women’s delegation and I have the opportunity to be here as a coach as well as being a competitor,” he said.
About his medal in Japan, he said that the experience was “unique”, but the best thing was “raising an entire country”, and he assured that now he has his sights set on Paris, where the most difficult thing is to “classify”. “Now I am preparing for Paris because I think what we are going to experience is going to be crazy and I want to retire from the competition getting a new medal,” she explained.
The Spanish reference of the Breaking, Juan de la Torre, ‘Xak’, recognized the “pride” and the “surprise” of having the opportunity to go to the Games, something that he “could not even” imagine. “The difference is to have always done all this by myself and now I am representing a lot of people, the whole community and I have the responsibility for the discipline to grow and it is an honor”, he stressed.
The Andalusian highlighted the days of “7 or 8 hours a day” that he trains to be able to “be at the level” that is required of him now that there are more and more competitions. “We have gone from holding our events in cultural events to now preparing the Olympic Games and the change is very noticeable,” he argued.
In addition, the president of the Spanish Skating Federation, Carmelo Paniagua, thanked for the “opportunity” to be able to celebrate the World Cup on scooters, a modality that he hopes will be Olympic in the future. “I am sure that the ‘scooter’ in the future will be Olympic, for 2032 I do not have any because it is spectacular, attractive and they do incredible things,” he reiterated.
The leader defended “the growth” of urban sports, of which he is proud of the institutions that “have been able to adapt” to the “needs of society.” “With these events we want to make it easier for the new generations to join urban sports. Their values are one of the main props for the growth of this discipline,” he concluded.