MADRID, 22 Jun. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The forward of the UVVK Prague and the Spanish team María Conde warned that “being an elite athlete is wonderful, but very complicated” due to the “pressure” on young promises, because it is like “champagne” and the “foam that rises and falls “, at the same time that he assured that all the players who will compete in the Paris Games “would give anything for a medal.”
“Personally, and I imagine it is something shared with the rest of my colleagues, I take it very calmly. The Games are a very big competition, which encompasses many things, and I think that putting my mind directly there takes away the weight and value of what what we have to do to get there,” the player reflected in an interview with Europa Press.
The team coached by Miguel Méndez will play six preparation matches for Paris 2024 this summer against five high-level rivals, China, Turkey, Canada, Belgium and Australia. “They have done a very good job with the tournaments, because playing against rivals who you are going to beat momentarily can help you feel that you are at a level that may not be the real one,” he analyzed.
“So, starting to fight with teams that are going to be in the fight for medals, in the minimum fight for the quarterfinals, can lead us to blows at the beginning, we don’t know, because we don’t know how the team is going to be. team, but it is the preparation we need to know where we are, what we have to do, what we have to improve and in what conditions we reach the final competition and the final objective, which is the Games,” he added.
And Conde sets high goals for the Olympic event. “I’m not going to be the one to tell you that I don’t want to win a medal,” she acknowledged. “But I think we have to be very aware of where we come from. We are in years of changes for one reason or another, retirements, injuries, things that may arise,” he warned.
“Therefore, we are in that process of construction and finding the pieces that are going to make this team fight for the things that need to be fought. We all have in mind competing to the best of our abilities, that is always an objective,” said the 27-year-old from Madrid.
The forward highlighted that Spain showed in the last Eurobasket, in which they won the silver, that there are no “blank years.” “There are players who share the same goals, the same dreams and the same desire to continue putting the country and this team at the top,” she said.
Even more so after the Tokyo Games in 2021 and a 2022 without a World Cup. “It was a strange year, we experienced two competitions that year, the Games were as they were. We lost in the quarterfinals against France by 6-7 points, and it seems that it was disastrous. That’s why we have to take it with a grain of salt. In the Eurobasket we also started losing and We ended up being runners-up in Europe,” he recalled.
“The year of Tokyo helped us learn many things because we lived many experiences together. There were many months of confinement due to COVID, and it left us with a great depth of learning and knowledge of ourselves. And I think this has been coming out these years and that it will continue to come out. Now in the Games we go with another perspective and another knowledge of the situations that we may encounter,” he celebrated.
“WE STARTED FROM A VERY GOOD EXPERIENCE”
“The goal of a medal does not matter whether I say it to the person who has 800 caps or someone who has zero, because an Olympic medal is what my friend who is waiting for me wants, you don’t have to be a professional athlete to want an Olympic medal. “he joked about the ambitious goal.
And “all” the players would give “anything” to play metal in Paris. “It is a very high goal, but we have the experience of many players who have been there for many years. I don’t know how many medals and Euroleagues there are in this call… There are many people who have won many things and I think we leave with a very good experience,” she applauded. .
Although she regretted the pressure that players are subjected to from outside, especially the youngest ones. “You have to be very careful with language, it is something very powerful, and even more so now with social networks and all the ease there is for messages to be transmitted. Now there is a lot of pressure, the first ones receive messages of ‘you are next, no I know what,'” he reflected.
“Being an elite athlete is very complicated, it is a wonderful thing and one that I would not change for anything, but it is a very complicated thing. I cannot ask people to be careful with what they say, but you have to be respectful of what they say. sport means mentally and physically for athletes,” he said.
An aspect that she knows how to negotiate, being “super lucky” for the close circle that surrounds her. “I had and have a group and a network around me that support me and that lift me up when things are bad and that hold me when things are good. Sport is champagne, it is foam that rises and falls according to the tide, it which is understandable, but we athletes have to have a very solid group of people at our side to keep us firm because it is a very slippery ground,” he expressed.
“INTENSITY AND GO OUT WITH THE KNIFE BETWEEN YOUR TEETH”
For Conde, the selection “always” starts from “people who want to work, willing to defend, because Spain has always been the defense.” “The basic things, the ones that cannot fail, the intensity, the work, the toughness, competing and wanting to win, going out with the knife between our teeth, we have it from the first to the last,” he indicated, before regretting the absence due to Raquel Carrera’s injury.
“He is a fundamental piece in the national team right now and he will be in the future as well, it is a shame, he is a very tough stick, also because of everything he means off the court. We are lucky that there is a group of players available and eager to be here and train,” he said.
Regarding his career, he highlighted his maturity at 27 years old, after leaving Spain when he was only 18. “The jump to the United States was a brutal thing, what that means for a girl who leaves home. I have been lucky to be able to be on teams in Europe that have counted on me and that have trusted me and that also puts you in a position of ‘I want to give what this team is asking of me,'” he commented.
“It has made me work even harder on things that I wanted to do to rise to the challenges that arose. In Poland I went to the supermarket and I didn’t know where the things I had to buy were, they are also everyday things that make the person that you are and that made me mature earlier than if I had stayed at home,” he added.
Finally, Conde announced that he will continue in Prague for another year, “with great enthusiasm for the challenges” he faces there. “They always ask me if I would return to Spain, and it is something that is getting closer and closer. I am in a club that I love, for which I want to fight,” he revealed.
“And the WNBA is an issue that is very shaky, because for me the priority has always been to be with the national team, the summers are for the national team. Because in the end it is also putting my body and mind into a continuous year of basketball, which I don’t think is the most ideal. I value my breaks and my time at home with my people, whom I can’t see because I’m not home during the year. So, for the moment I’m at peace,” he concluded. .
2024-06-22 08:11:28
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