BarcelonaSeven Catalans will be at the Beijing Winter Olympics from February 4 to 20. The Spanish Winter Sports Federation has confirmed the list of 9 athletes who have managed to qualify for the Chinese event. Two of them, the Catalan Queralt Castellet and the Basque Lucas Eguibar aspire to a medal and already had their place confirmed on the snowboard some time ago. The rest have earned their places with the marks obtained both last season and in the current World Cup. May Peus, the president of the Federation, highlighted how in the last four years most of the classified athletes have improved their position in the classifications of their respective disciplines.
Obviously, the best known face is Queralt Castellet from Sabadell, who at the age of 32 is already a well-known name in the discipline of halfpipe in the snow. He has won two bronze medals at the FIS World Cup this season (Copper Mountain and Laax) and was third in the FIS World Cup circuit in Halfpipe last winter. She is the most experienced athlete on the list, having competed in four Olympic Games (Turin 2006, Vancouver 2010, Sochi 2014 and PyeongChang 2018) and earned her best ranking with the 7th Olympic diploma at the Korea Games. South. The Catalan, who has lived in New Zealand or Switzerland looking for tracks that do not exist in the Pyrenees, has the Olympic goal as her ultimate goal in a career full of success.
27-year-old skier Nuria Pau has made her dream come true. The athlete from Club de la Molina, a visible face of the FAST-Holaluz women’s professional team, has taken part in the last two World Championships, in Äre in 2019 and Cortina in 2021 in alpine skiing. This will be her debut in the Games after a season full of sacrifices that led her to lead with other skiers and the Club de la Molina the creation of the FAST-Holaluz team. “I am just assimilating the news. It’s very exciting for me, as I’ve spent years fighting for that goal and even more time dreaming about it. It took a lot of effort, perseverance, perseverance, struggle, and it was all worth it, ”said the Ribes de Freser skier. “I face them with a lot of motivation and with a lot of desire to give my best. It has been a difficult season due to the injuries I have suffered, but now I am fully recovered and overcoming these obstacles has led me to have more confidence in what I can do “, he adds.
Instead, it will be the second adventure for Quim Salarich (Alpine Skiing). The 27-year-old skier from La Molina Club d’Esports (LMCE) has just won a historic third place in the European Cup in Vaujany (France). Salarich has established himself as the best alpine skier in the state in over 15 years, with great progress last season.
Cross-country skier Jaume Pueyo, just 20 years old, will also make his debut in some Games. Member of the Urgellet Cerdanya Cross-Country Ski Club (CEFUC) of the Catalan Federation, he has three participations in the Cross-Country Skiing World Cup. The 2021 season he managed to finish as number 1 in the FIS ranking in the sprint category of his age (2001) and under.
Far from the ski slopes, Ander Mirambell will face his fourth Games in the skeleton mode, after a hard-fought classification until the end. He will try to overcome his best position, the 23rd of PyeongChang 2018.
Adrián Díaz and Olivia Smart, FC Barcelona skaters, have also won the Olympic ticket in figure skating. For Díaz it will be his second Olympic participation, after Sochi 2014.
The other classified athletes are the Basque Lucas Elguibar (Snowboard cross SBX), as well as the skier living in the Pyrenees and born in Switzerland Thibaut Magnin in free skiing, a discipline in which Javier Lliso from Madrid will also take part. In alpine skiing, there is also the Basque Adur Etxezarreta, while the Basque Imanol Rojo will also make his cross-country skiing debut.
