“If someone promises you medals, hire them, but I’m afraid they’re cheating on you”

Roy is a Chinese climbing coach, an opportunity that came to him after a long career in the Spanish team, where he was responsible for one of the best generations in international climbing. It was formed by Patxi Usobiaga and the Catalans Edu Marin and Ramon Julian, and added three world championships, three world cups and four European championships, all with Roy in the engine room.

The path that has taken this Maresme casteller to a small Chinese room begins in adolescence, when he discovers climbing, “a sport that hooks you and doesn’t leave you until it becomes your life,” he explains. La passió es va convertir en feina quan va començar a col·laborar amb l’equip espanyol de la mà d’un històric del muntanyisme català, Toti Vales. First as a team manager and then being a selector. Thirteen years later, in 2018, came the call that changed his life, a dusty opportunity: “It’s a train that passes once, but when the Chinese come to pick me up I’m one of the most veteran coaches and the director of selectors within the international federation “. And he doesn’t say it, but also the best record.

An unlikely challenge

The proposal took him by surprise, managing the withdrawal of one of the great myths of international climbing, Ramon Julian from Manlleu, and preparing a new group of Spanish athletes. The announcement that climbing would be a new Olympic sport by the IOC changed everything and accelerated events. “To us – he and a team of two technicians, demand sine qua non de Roy – we are hired to be in Beijing. Qualifying for Tokyo was his obsession, “he said.

“We promised all the effort to achieve this, but no one can guarantee you the results. If someone promises you medals, hire them, but I’m afraid they’re cheating on you,” said the Catalan coach, who soon left. realizing the great deficit their athletes were suffering. “We needed them to ride a lot: climbing is a sport in which experience and situation matter almost more than physical preparation,” he says. That’s why he took them to Europe, wanted to see them in action on the rock and have them compete in the World Cup trials. From here to the dreaded and long-awaited pre-Olympic, in December 2019. The Chinese team managed to qualify three climbers for this competition, and two of them got a ticket to Tokyo, YuFei Pan in the men’s category, eliminated in the qualifying on Tuesday, and YiLing Song in female. Goal met? “Undoubtedly, but now that we are there we want the medal, although we know it is very difficult to get it,” said the coach of China. At the time of closing this edition, the female representative was competing for a place in the final.

The cliché says that the competition puts everyone in place, but whatever the outcome, Toni Roy is clear that perpetuating himself in office “is not the way, you have to constantly evolve.” The future will tell where he will continue his immaculate career. What is certain is that, whether their athletes win or lose in Tokyo, when the Olympic Games are over, the Mataro native will leave this Chinese dormitory city to return home. “I miss social life and food … and the rock, of course, like in Catalonia it doesn’t climb anywhere,” exclaims Roy. And even more anxious after being put off for a whole year. The Siurana roads await him in September.