You go to Paris through Rome, say the people of European athletics, but the Italian capital was not a flying goal, but rather a full attraction that sometimes made you forget the Olympic grandeur that was coming. Rome was important in its own right.
The European Championships have been an opera with a sluggish start due to embarrassment and the program and a furious ending, apotheotic atmosphere in the Olympic, party and drama, as if the most predictable Verdi in person, revived more than a century after being buried, It would have been behind the libretto and the music, and only the sentimental and emotional crescendo to restlessness and tears would have made sense. Neither the choir nor the solo performers nor the dizos, who broke 15 championship records, went out of tune.
With their Olympic champions at the forefront (the 100m king Jacobs, the jumper Tamberi, his 4×100 relay, the symbol of the young strength of a country in crisis), the Italians dominated splendidly (24 medals, 11 of them gold), which guaranteed a magnificent atmosphere in the stands in eight-hour daily sessions, one of the greatness that only athletics can generate, and the greatest European athletes, also the best in the world, the children of generation Z who are already classics , they shone: Jakob Ingebrigtsen became the first athlete to win six golds, three in 5,000m and three in 1,500m, in three consecutive championships, since Berlin 2018, when he debuted at 17 years old; Mondo Duplantis, after winning, at the age of 24, his third consecutive gold with a championship record (6.10m) tried to break the world record for the sixth time, he ordered the bar to be set at 6.25m, he chose his yellowest pole hard and let himself be inspired by the I will fly by Modugno that sounded to, together with the crescent moon, lying down at almost midnight on Wednesday, create an almost dreamlike and garish atmosphere. “And I flew, I flew happily higher than the sun, and even higher, while the world slowly disappeared far away,” Domenico sang, and the Swede tried to imitate him, and on his first attempt he surpassed the height well, but he fell when he brushed against the chest in its descent the bar, which fell. The other two attempts were worse. He was exhausted. A little older, 26 years old, the Olympic long-distance champion, the Greek Tentoglou, flew parabolic on the stage to also beat, with his best mark, 8.65m, the record of the championships, as was also surpassed by the phenomena of the 400m hurdles, the Olympic champion, the Norwegian Karsten Warholm (46.98s), and the Dutch Femke Bol (52.49s), world runner-up and contender in one of the great duels awaiting Olympic gold in Paris against Sydney McLaughlin. More big names that took the hiccups: the heptathlete Naffisatou Thiam, the jumpers Malaika Mihambo and Yarolslava Mahuchikh.
And although he is not yet a world or Olympic champion, since he has not yet had the opportunity, 18.18 meters and Jordan Díaz enter the group of divos, who breaks out of the mold of Spanish athletics, a separate chapter from the evaluation that after the championship , early Thursday morning, the national coach José Peiró did at the stadium.
“Eight medals, two of them gold, 29 finalists, 40% of the team… I am not going to say that it has been a bad championship, but I am not going to say that I am satisfied either because that is not the case. I expected, within the normal forecast, I expected a little more, and within the optimistic forecast, well, much more,” analyzes Peiró. “We have had absolutely stellar performances, and I am not just referring to the medals, but there have been athletes who have been far above what was expected, such as the sprinter Guillem Crespí [sexto en 100m] or Quique Llopis, who definitively establishes himself in the elite of the 110m hurdles, not only because of the place, silver, but also because of the mark he has made [13,16s]. We expected more than fifth place in the final points table, after Italy, France, Great Britain and Germany. We have to aspire to more.”
He talks about Paris, and everyone looks at Jordan Díaz, a world champion who reaches, at the age of 23, in his first season of maturity, the highest category of athletics, inhabitant of the kingdom of those who turn the technical gesture into art, make it their own. , as if they were born with it, they transform it into beauty, and they excite. While 99% of athletes are hard workers who, sweaty and tenacious, try to imitate nature, 1%, or even less, are nature itself: without sweat they make the impossible natural. Spanish athletics had never had such an alien. He is the Alcaraz of athletics, another herald of generation Z of sports, like Pogacar, because, being from the category of sports Martians, he also laughs and never breaks down, and is not like the champions of other times, mad dogs. , always angry elements, as if high performance depended on fury.
“Yes, the truth is that the entire competition is like everyday life. I am always happy, I am with the team making jokes. For competition, yes, you have to be very focused, but never leave your character, as you are. And I think that being a happy person is the best thing there is, so…”, he says on Wednesday afternoon, after receiving the champion’s medal, and at his side, the second, Pichardo, pouting, representing anger. He doesn’t even look at him. “I am quite happy and I am quite calm”
He is a Spaniard from Guadalajara, from Iván Pedroso’s team, like the gold medalist and also triple jumper Ana Peleteiro, but like his coach he distinguishes himself by getting things done Cuban-style, as the verse of the song dictates Orishamyth that all Cubans know: “With my flow that calms the nervous without fatigue. With my connection, controlling my tongue well.” As he does in the minutes before his duel with Pichardo, the mother of all triple competitions, 18.18 against 18.04, and oblivious to the commotion around him, he sits on a bench and jokes with a rival, the Portuguese Tiago Pereira. “Of course, what I’m saying, you can’t be so tense either. I am focused on the competition, but in the end he is my teammate and I am going to support him so that he can win a medal too,” he explains, as Pereira also trains with Pedroso and finishes fourth. “Apart from that, let’s see, it’s a competition. You don’t have to be there to die either.”
Peleteiro is also cheerful and happy outside the showroom, but she transforms into a fury, a tigress, when she competes. “Ana really likes to hit with her fists. I’m more of a hand passer. I am very calm. I am a brush. I’m one to pass the hand. Everything is calm”, and with her soft hand she caresses her leg to reinforce her words with tenderness. But that calm does not exclude the competitive instinct, the desire to always win. The ability to give the maximum. “The tension of the competition has also helped me jump more and reach the limit. At the limit at that moment, not at my limit. It was an incredible competition and I am happy with what I have done. This competition is going to go down in history for everything. We made incredible brands.”
But at this point, when his talent is praised, he responds by talking about training and work; When he is told that he is already at another level, he responds that he is like everyone else. “I don’t believe myself a little more than anyone else. We are all at the same level and the one in the best condition will always win,” he says. And when asked when he will jump 18.30m and break a 29-year-old world record, he talks about life. “I don’t know, I’m not looking for it either. I’m not looking for anything. Everything works out, everything is training and if it works out, it works out. If not, then it will be another day,” he says. “Right now I am happy. I’m telling you, I’m happier for the medal than for the 18-18. That’s what I say, the medals are what you’re going to get. The records, another one is going to come and break them. That’s clear. I swear, I don’t care about 18-18. The medal is worth more to me than 18-18. “Brands are procedures.”
And now on land, descended from the moon on which he competes, without gravity, and his brush is light gauze, fog, he stands firmly on both feet and refuses to ignore his convictions, carried by the enthusiasm and reading of his enthusiastic admirers. “I will go to Paris with more confidence after this competition,” he says. “But I’m not saying gold. I never trust myself in any competition, much less in the Olympic Games. So gold, I don’t know, and I say what medal it could be, and I’m not very clear either because in the end I may have jumped 18-18 right now, but it doesn’t mean I have to do it again.”
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