What does this recognition mean to you?
It is a source of pride and I am tremendously grateful for it. Also surprised, because one thinks that when they give you an award for a career it is like it is already over. It's like that recognition of 'you've already done everything', but oh well, I'm almost starting. I still have many dreams and much to do. Life, for me, always continues. I am a person who jumps into the pool in all aspects and I really enjoy everything I do. An award like this is key to motivating me, to telling me: 'You're on the right track, keep going', because you can continue doing a lot of things. I'm 50 years old, but you never feel that old. You are getting older, but you still feel as young as before.
He has just won the 100th medal of his career and, in addition, has the 2028 Paralympic Games on the horizon.
I always finish a competition and I'm already thinking about the next one. In fact, I have the countdown here, on my mobile: 677 days until the Los Angeles Games begin. I wake up and I have a reminder on my phone.
Doesn't this overwhelm you?
On the contrary, it motivates me, also because I really like what I do. I am lucky to have an environment that helps me and accompanies me, starting with my husband and my son, who are the ones who tolerate me being away from home for a long time. Because, in the end, it's not just about dreaming, you have to put your dream into practice. You have to train, and I train here, in Madrid. I am very separated from them, but also, well, in the distance we are very united. Then, here, in Madrid, I have a lot of support to be able to train. You think that when you do an individual sport, you are you and that's it. And of course I'm the one who jumps into the water, but for me to jump into the water, I need a lot of people to be with me, by my side, every day. And I wish that later all those people could go up to the podium with me and thank them publicly, as happens, I don't know, in football, basketball and other team sports, where the entire technical team goes up with them. I would like my son, my husband, my coach and everyone there with me, to enjoy that podium and that medal.
The 2028 Los Angeles Paralympic Games will be his eighth. What difference is there between one and the other?
30 years. 30 years competing in Games, it is said very soon. Let's see, they have all been different. Some, due to their own youth, wanting to take on the world and, well, then experiencing the abyss that, suddenly, they had already passed, right? You spend a lot of time, four years of your life, preparing, and then suddenly you say, "They're gone."
When they pass by, do you feel a certain emptiness?
Yes, it's like an abyss of: 'Puff, start over.' But you quickly learn to manage it well and understand that that's it, that one has passed and you are moving on to the next. And, in my case, I took the initiative that, as soon as the cauldron went off, the countdown for the next ones began. I already turned on my cell phone and have been doing so since cell phones existed. Since Athens, I've been counting down all the time.
She is seen with great vitality. He has said that it is as if he had just started, but he has won 100 medals, which is said to be early.
It's on my list, but look: one day it occurred to me to say, a lot of years ago: "When I get medal number 100, I'll retire." Well no, no, I'm recanting now: I'm not retiring yet. Now I'm looking for something else. That 100 is very good, but 101, 102 and 103, I won't even tell you. Now I'm much calmer, because I already have that goal accomplished. So, now I'm going as a gift to everything that may come from now on, right? And getting to the Games and winning a medal, obviously, is the goal
In fact, on some occasions he has stated that after the Angels he would retire.
But why am I going to lie to you? If I want to retire, I don't know when it will be. I mean, there will come a time, I imagine, when I will appear at the pool one day and say: 'What am I doing here?' It hasn't happened to me. In other words, I have decided this one day: when for five days in a row I go to the pool and ask myself 'What am I doing here?', then I will know that it is time to retire. But that moment has not yet arrived. I wake up very well, I just feel like it. I want to train, I want to be with my teammates, I have a good time. So, yes. And then it's not just because it would seem to be more selfish. It's not just that, it's that I consider that I have not finished my work. And my work goes beyond medals. My work is also a social work, a work of raising awareness, of conveying that life does not end until it is truly over, that there is always hope, that you can continue no matter how hard the road gets. Because, look, I only walk with one arm. Come on, my life hasn't been complicated. Know? Because it's not just swimming: it's getting dressed, living your life with one arm... It's very complicated.
What's more, he had a dislocation in his left arm.
Here (points to a splint on his arm) I am wearing all the Games in which I have participated and I will, of course, put Los Angeles. It's like my tattoo of my sports history, my personal history, and it's very beautiful.
But you also have to know how to manage this. Sport has also taught me to manage all the circumstances that happen to you. In addition, I have also used it as a speaker to give a voice to people who did not have one and to try to change a little the way in which people look at people with disabilities. I am lucky to be an athlete and they no longer take the chair, they no longer take the pity. They already say: "Oh no, this is...", you know? It's all it is. And I am the same.
Now that you mention it, what do you think has evolved in Paralympic sport?
If we were not considered high-level athletes, it was a very important moment in which, finally, we had that institutional recognition. Obviously, there was also the economic part, because, in order to be able to dedicate yourself to this and be able to compete, I don't know if on equal terms, but to have a chance against countries that were making large investments, we also needed our country to invest a lot in us.
And this has changed. Now yes. I myself live here, in Madrid, during the week, at the Joaquín Blume residence, with the scholarship athletes, and I am lucky to be able to do so. This, if we go back 25 years, was totally forbidden for us. We didn't have access because we weren't high-level athletes. Yes, we were, but not on paper. This has been a very important change on a social level and has given us the opportunity to continue competing and, look, winning so many recognitions for Spain.
What would you say to those children with disabilities who want to be athletes?
What a mood, what a mood. I already know that it is difficult for many of them when they have a disability, because, unfortunately, there are many closed doors, many clubs that do not have adapted sports sections, that do not know how to do it, that the administrative route is difficult for them. And don't worry, I'm going to help you and there's the project. Someday, when my Foundation is in good condition, when the Protectorate gives me the starting signal, I promise that I will be there to help. It is true that we have very good athletes, but we have a problem: there are very good athletes who cannot practice a sport because they do not have access. It is not a question of architectural barrier, it is a question, sometimes, of administrative barrier, ignorance or social barrier. They don't even know who to turn to, what they have to do, what help is available, what isn't...
In addition, he has also been in politics. Now that there is an atmosphere of tension and division, what would you say to our representatives?
You have to have your feet on the ground. What you have to have is contact with people and what you don't have to do is ideological approaches as intangibles. I mean, I mean, here you can't use 'well, you did it one way, I'm going to contradict you just because'. No. We have to... I mean, I have always believed in politics as the art of agreements for the benefit of the majority. You have to help people and that's it. We have to think that, when we do things, we do them to improve the world, not to try to stir it up.
