Page 12 in France
From Paris
It took eight years for Argentina to win a gold medal again, since those won by Paula Pareto (judo, 48kg), Los Leones (field hockey) and Santiago Lange and Cecilia Carranza (Sailing, Nacra 17 mixed) in Rio de Janeiro 2016, and twelve since the last time a man had done so in an individual sport, Sebastián Crismanich (taekwondo) in London 2012.
El Maligno went down in history in a “new” and different sport for Olympic lovers who are used to other traditional sports such as fencing, gymnastics and athletics, among others. José Torres Gil achieved what no one had achieved before, a score of 94.82 that marked a record in the short history of BMX freestyle in the top multi-sport event that had debuted on the Olympic programme in Tokyo 2020.
In addition, the Bolivian-born athlete who has lived in Córdoba since he was 11 years old left an indelible mark on Wednesday that very few athletes have achieved: being a champion throughout the Olympic cycle. From Asunción 2022 to Santiago 2023 until reaching Paris and being crowned Olympian.
The road to Paris
Torres had two chances to qualify, first in the Pre-Olympic in China and then in Budapest. In the general classification he had not achieved the Olympic place but due to a reallocation by the International Cycling Union, which had a lot to do with the ninth place achieved in the 2023 World Championships, Maligno entered among the twelve riders who would seek to reach the top in Paris 2024.
The qualifying phase was on Tuesday and only nine of the twelve participants would make it to the grand final. Torres finished seventh and achieved his first objective: to make it to the final. On the first day of competition, the riders made two passes and the scores were averaged to obtain the final record. El Maligno finished with an average of 86.66, ahead of a Brazilian and a Latvian, the last to reach the final.
This Wednesday the final stage was different: two routines were performed with the difference that the worst record would be eliminated and the best score would remain valid. This is how the Argentine made a first run for history that would lead him to take the gold with his score of 94.82.
“I am very happy, I cannot understand what is happening. I am sure that when I get to the Olympic Village I will understand what happened. I try not to show my emotions because I do not want to make anyone feel sorry for me, but I am devastated at the moment. I had a bad time in qualifying, but today I managed to enjoy myself,” said the Cordoba native in the mixed zone.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino was in charge of presenting the medal to the Argentine athlete. The Italian has been a member of the IOC since 2020 after five years in which football had no representation in the highest Olympic institution.
“I was waiting for the Australian to come through, and when I saw that he couldn’t beat me, I knew I had a medal. At that moment, I didn’t care about the order, but then, when there was only the British man left who could win the gold, I didn’t want to watch his round. When he finished his round and I saw that he didn’t do one of the hard tricks he had to do, I automatically realized that we were in the gold medal pool,” Torres said about the moment when he knew he was going to climb to the top of the podium.
The road was not easy for Torres, who was a gold medalist at the 2023 X Games in California, the most important extreme sports event. “I kept changing my goals. The first was to get to the Olympic Games, the second was to get to the final, which was already very difficult, and when you got in, all the goals changed. I put together my round and I knew that if I managed to do it, I would get on the podium in one way or another, and when I did it, I felt very satisfied. I felt like I was able to put pressure on all the athletes. I always feel inferior, but this time was the first time I could feel on par with my routine,” confessed the Argentine athlete.
That routine was thought up after qualifying for the final: “When I was training I felt that something was different today. I hope to be able to organize a bike ride to show off the medal, I’m already looking forward to going home and seeing all the family.”
The Cordoban, who must begin a period of physical recovery due to injuries on the left side of his body, referred to the entire national delegation: “We are having a hard time winning a medal and all the athletes are doing an immense job representing their sport. It was kill or be killed, luckily I didn’t die,” concluded the Maligno who will be immortalized among the 22 gold medals that the Argentine delegation has had since 1896.
2024-08-01 03:01:00
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