The Olympic champion, in the “final” stage of her recovery from a shoulder injury, rules out her presence in the World Cup “for the moment”
“I have done a job of patience and listening to my body,” confesses the swimmer, immersed in “an exercise of continuing to increase hunger”
MADRID, 26 Abr. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Spanish swimmer Mireia Belmonte, holder of four Olympic medals, is clear that her “ultimate objective” and “priority” is to compete in Paris 2024, although this year, with the World Cup in Fukuoka (Japan) in less than three months, she will have to stay “with the desire” to compete and train “in an intense way”, since he continues with his shoulder recovery process, in a “work of patience” and “continue increasing hunger”.
“My last competition was in October in the World Cup and the truth is that I had a good feeling. But then the injuries came and I’m still there, so the priority right now is to recover and then start training more constantly and with more intensity. The priority is that the shoulder does not give problems for next year for Paris”, said Belmonte in an interview with Europa Press after the renewal of the agreement between the COE and the UCAM.
The 32-year-old from Badalona could not overcome the preliminaries of the 400 freestyle, the 200 butterfly, the 100 butterfly and the 200 styles in the event that was held in Berlin at the end of 2022, with a fifth place in the 400 styles as the only and last result in an international competition.
But her shoulder injury that has given her so many problems in recent years reappeared, so her only goal is to complete that recovery in which she “still” is immersed. “Everything depends on the shoulder, on his times. For now it is not very feasible to start training in a more intense way if he is not fully recovered,” he explained after confirming that he will not attend the Mare Nostrum-Ciutat de Barcelona, on the 17th and May 18, and rule out the Fukuoka World Cup “for the moment”.
“I KNOW I AM NOT AT MY BEST LEVEL, BUT NEXT YEAR I WILL BE FINE”
“I have the goal of Paris, but I don’t know right now what the planning will be for next year. Recover my shoulder, since I am already in the final stage of that recovery, and start swimming normally,” said Mireia Belmonte, who he refused to scrap his participation in the next Games.
Her little competitive activity in 2022 has allowed the Catalan swimmer to rest mentally, who reiterates that her “focus must be” on Paris, with the World Cups in Japan, which she does not believe will “arrive”, and Qatar -in February 2024- , and the rest of the competitions to “prepare” what he considers the Olympic “priority”.
“I know that now I’m not at my best moment, nor at my best level, but I know that I’m going to be fine next year. So, I prioritize the final objective, which is Paris, and this year I have to stay with the desire And I also think it’s an exercise in continuing to increase hunger. This year it couldn’t have been, but I want to come back, to do it well”, reflected Belmonte, who won gold in the 200m butterfly and bronze in the 400 IM in Rio 2016, and two silvers -800 freestyle and 200 butterfly- in London 2012.
However, the standard-bearer at Tokyo 2020 refuses to talk about “anxiety” about competing despite the tedious injury, which has forced her to do “a fairly important job of patience and listening to her body.” “It’s what it costs us athletes, knowing when to stop, stopping on time. Sometimes we sin that if we don’t stop on time, the problem becomes much bigger,” she acknowledged.
“It is the exercise of having patience, of having security and a lot of confidence that if you recover well and do things as they should, then you have a final reward. There are always days that you feel better and days that you feel worse. The days that you you feel better is when you push harder and then the bad days come, which are a little longer in time”, he stressed about forcing himself in order to compete at the highest level, aware that “sometimes” you have to “put a bit of a brake on it “.
Finally, Mireia Belmonte thanked the support of the UCAM to combine the elite with the studies, something that is “difficult”. “Thanks to the UCAM we can go at our own pace, organize ourselves better. We have a tutor who guides you in the subjects, tells you which ones are best for you that year or not due to the training load,” concluded the student of the Degree in Advertising and Public Relations in this university center.