He had to launch his arrows in just 40 seconds, but it was enough to add Olympic gold to Spain along with Alfonso Menéndez and Juan Carlos Holgado
“We set ourselves the goal of earning an Olympic diploma and we ended up with gold and congratulated by the King himself”, recalls Antonio for SPORT, 30 years later
Antonio Vázquez Megido (Levinco, Asturias) was the Spanish athlete who culminated the unexpected Olympic success in archery in Barcelona’92. He did it together with his teammates Alfonso Menéndez and Juan Carlos Holgado, who shot their arrows first, but Antonio had to eat the ‘brown’.
Being the fastest when executing the shot, it was clear that he had to be the last of the three shooters to release his three arrows. What I did not expect is that I had to hit the small target at 70 meters and in just 40 seconds! “The glory or the disappointment was mine because it was always the last arrow! In the final, I got three nines”, recalls Antonio at the Olympic Shooting Club in Montjuïc. “I had to shoot fast because I only had 40 seconds left. There wasn’t much to think about or anything going through my head, although it was glory or I could screw it up for life…”
Fortunately, he did not fail and his three nines earned him gold for Spain in a discipline that was not included in the medal options, although he had the honor of being congratulated by King Juan Carlos. “The final was delayed for the King and Narcís Serra to arrive. They were in tennis with Arantxa and since the Vall d’Hebron headquarters was very close, and they told them to go to the archery final… He came to see us, he greeted us. He also came one day in training”, recalls Antonio.
certificate and thank you
The team success was far beyond what they really expected themselves. “We set ourselves the goal of getting a diploma and being among the top eight and we would settle for that,” he explains. The gold in archery did not come by chance but because of a job well done the previous two years. “There was first a selection of 14 people as candidates. Working all the time we were five people.
Antonio Vázquez will never forget his participation in the Barcelona’92 Games
| JAVI FERRANDIZ
Little by little, natural selection was made because the training was very hard, shooting more than 500 arrows every day. and eight or 10 hours of arc, apart from the physical, psychological preparation… the people couldn’t hold out physically and they moved away”. In the end, it was the three chosen ones who fell into the hands of the Russian coach, Viktor Sidoruk, who ended up turning them into authentic ‘machines’ for shooting arrows. “He came thinking only of working, working and working and it is normal because of the level that other countries had. You had to work hard and we were not used to it. A Russian job to crush thousands of shots to make the perfect gesture, ”she said.
Although for Antonio, the magical moment came from another athlete of his specialty, Antonio Rebollo, who launched the famous arrow over the cauldron at the Opening Ceremony. “It was spectacular. It was archery but you have to classify it as totally instinctive”, she recalled with a sparkle in her eyes. “He used a very powerful bow, I think it is about 25 or 26 kilos of power. The arrow weighed a lot and pointing towards the cauldron, trying to compensate with a bit of air and looking for a line of just four meters by four, I had to pass the arrow through there”.
Rebollo, historical moment
Obviously, it was a historic moment that happily ended well and is still well remembered 30 years later.. “The arrow did not have to fall into the cauldron, it had to go behind it. If it fell into the cauldron, there was the danger that the cauldron would explode when the gas lines were blocked… It was a perfect launch and very difficult to execute”, explains someone who understands the subject. And that preparation also had his anecdotes. “Rebollo came once a week and they also had problems with the test so that it wouldn’t turn off… There were some incidents. They had a second goalkeeper ready in case Antonio Rebollo was not available. This archer did some tests that didn’t go well. He even burned some chairs… Everyone prayed that Antonio would be the man with the inaugural arrow”, he explained.
Antonio Vázquez won a gold that gave him fame, at least for a while after appearing on all televisions with the feat achieved. Although it only lasted the time to go to cut his hair. “I had very long hair then and when I arrived in Asturias, everyone recognized me and it was amazing. I decided to cut my hair and from my house to the hairdresser it took me about an hour to walk 300 meters. It was getting my hair cut, and it only took me 30 seconds to get home because no one knew me anymore, hahaha.”
His life took a turn after the Atlanta Games, his last Olympic participation after having done so in Moscow’80 and Seoul’88 as well as Barcelona’92. “I went to Ibiza, to work in a shooting club, and then I met a girl and I came to live in Begas. I am linked to an Olesa club and I work in the training of junior category players”, says Antonio to which the archery bug still accompanies him. He is convinced that this sport will be discussed again at the Games. “We are working well in Madrid with Elías Cuesta. I think that for teams a medal will be possible again”, he predicts.
