We have a girl with a spectacular future. You’ll see.” A few years have passed since that premonitory sentence and Laura Vázquez has begun to color the future with the present. More and more. Last Friday she revalidated her European under-23 title at -63 kilos to chain her third consecutive European win if joins that of the junior category that she achieved in 2022. “The truth is that I am very happy,” she confesses with a certain shyness, which she hides in the kimono on the tatami, where it becomes a weapon of mass destruction.
She is only 22 years old and is already a three-time European champion. All this seasoned with several successful forays into the senior category, where she is already beginning to rub shoulders with the best. But his feet are still firmly rooted in the pot. “In two weeks I have the Spanish Championship and it is also a key objective,” he says with his sights set on the next objective. “Especially for getting rid of the thorn from last year, when I was fifth,” she admits sincerely. “I am motivated after the results of these last few weeks, so I will try to fight for gold. It would be great to finish 2024 well,” she emphasizes, while being “satisfied” because “a few months of good work and good feelings paid off in Friday’s competition.”
Laura is developing her budding career from her hometown, combined with the CGTD of Pontevedra. He has not needed to move to any judo meccas elsewhere. Here he trains with his longtime coach, Marcial Romero, and a stable and consolidated work group. And so it will continue to be. “I am very happy with the team I have in Vigo. I don’t plan to leave. I have my family close, my coaches, psychologist, physios… Everything I have achieved so far has been thanks to them. “I feel very supported,” expresses the three-time European champion with a love and sincerity that transcends the tone of her voice.
But the journey towards the present continues. And for this reason, the monument to the Olympics that serves as the gateway to Rosalía de Castro is Laura’s great objective. He wants to register his name there along with the rest of the people from Vigo who touched the sports sky. “I fight every day to be able to be in the Games. Our long-term project is Los Angeles 2028,” he expresses, in a compatible contradiction between day to day and what will happen in four years. Because that’s how the path goes. “Medals, competitions, training… Everything adds up and I hope it helps to get there,” she says with the utmost enthusiasm, seasoned with the necessary prudence in the face of such a challenge. “I think I’m in a good moment, both physically and mentally,” she warns, knowing that this cycle that has just started can and should be hers, before quickly returning to the next step, now as a senior judoka. “I hope that these good feelings will help me finish 2024 well and start 2025 with enthusiasm,” concludes Laura Vázquez, European cubed champion.
