In the absence of 500 days for the celebration of Paris Olympics, date that was fulfilled last Saturday, Spanish sport looks to this event with the aim of once again hanging around twenty medals. Something that he did not achieve in the last Tokyo Games, where 17 games were won. (3 gold, 8 silver and 6 bronze).
Spain has been around those 20 medals in recent editions, achieving 19 in Beijing 2008, 20 in London 2012, 17 in Rio de Janeiro and the same number in Tokyo. The best harvest of Spanish athletes continues to be that of Barcelona ’92, with 22 medals (13 gold, 7 silver and 3 bronze), which allowed him to be sixth in the overall medal table.
Olympics, not Olympics
In this Olympiad, which must be remembered that it is the time between one Olympic Games and another and not a synonym of these as it is used erroneously, the results of Spanish athletes in World and European Championships invite optimism. The cycle, which is shorter since the Tokyo 2020 Games were held in 2021, has been fruitful and today there are 22 medals in World Cups and 40 in Europeans, which in some cases turns out to be such a powerful competition that it serves as a reference for the competition of the Games.
An example is men’s handball, where the European teams have won the World Cup this 2023 (Denmark, France and Spain) after fighting for the continental scepter in 2022, in which Spain slipped into the final against Sweden, leaving the Danes in third place. Which confirms that the Hispanics are a guaranteed option to hang a medal in Paris, as they did in Tokyo, where they won the bronze defeating Egypt (33-31) after losing in the semifinals with Denmark (23-27).
Canoeing
In the list of Spanish world champions in this cycle The power of the canoeists is striking, who last August won gold in the C2-500 meter World Championships (Cayetano García and Pablo Martínez) and in K4-500 meters (Saúl Craviotto, Carlos Arévalo, Marcus Walz and Rodrigo Germade). They are joined by the water polo boys who climbed to the top of the box a month earlier.
They hung the money taekwondo players like Iván García and Andoni Cintado, or sailors like Jordi Xammar and Nora Brugman in 470 or Florian Trittel and Diego Botín in 49er. The Olympic gold medalist in shooting, Fátima Gálvez, also did it and will be ready for Paris, like the rowers Rodrigo Conde and Aleix García in M2x, or Jaime Canalejo and Javier García in M2.
Others who won silver are MTB cyclist David Valero, C1-200 meter canoeist María Corbera and speed climber Erik Noya. While among the teams that have won the bronze, the Hispanics and the rhythmic gymnastics team stand out.
new financing
After the disappearance of the ADO plan, which was established in 1987 to support the development and promotion of high-performance national athletes at the Olympic level for the Barcelona Games, now the athletes rely on the ‘Team España Elite’. This plan presents an investment of 48 million in the three years of this short cycle between Tokyo and Paris, money that comes from the Professional Soccer League through what is generated by the sale of its television rights.
It is a plan that subsidizes 230 athletes and teamswith name and surname, which can only go to them in order to finance permanent or specific concentrations, in Spain or abroad, trips to preparatory competitions, material or payment to coaches, physios, psychologists or nutritionists, as long as it fits perfectly justified.