There are four months left until the July 26 inauguration of the Paris 2024 Games and the sport of A Coruña has two athletes classified, María de Valdés in open waters and Enmanuel Reyes in boxing. But in the intense coming months with selection and classification processes still underway, the number may increase, between Olympic and Paralympic athletes, to nine. The names of Carlos Arevalo (canoeing), Julia Benedetti (skate), Paula Otero (swimming) e Irene Martinez (weightlifting) are in all the pools, but also those of Damian Ramos (adapted cycling), Jacob Garrido (adapted swimming) and Alberto Seoane (adapted table tennis). This would mean surpassing the current record since Atlanta 1996, when seven A Coruña athletes participated in the Games: Andrés Díaz and David Martínez in athletics; Jorge Maciel and Antón Garrote in sailing and Roberto Naveira in judo; in addition to Pucho Boedo (judo) and José Manuel Taibo (soccer), who returned with a silver and a bronze, the only A Coruña Paralympic medals in history.
At the moment, the number is only two. Maria de Valdes, from Malaga who has lived in the city for seven years, qualified last February by proclaiming herself runner-up in the world 10 kilometers in open water. She is, therefore, a medal candidate in the French capital, although by the fact of being there she has fulfilled one of her dreams after being left out of Tokio.
In Japan it was Emmanuel Reyes, one of the great protagonists of the fight that went beyond sporting overtones in the quarterfinals of the Olympic tournament. The Cuban living in the city, nationalized Spanish, faced one of the idols of his country, Julio La Cruz. The Prophet of Monte Alto was defeated with controversy and a few weeks ago he secured revenge with the ticket to Paris in the pre-Olympic tournament that took place in Italy and awarded four places, which they sealed by reaching the semifinals with very good victories along the way.
ENMANUEL REYES / LA OPINION
Reyes was accompanied in Tokyo by Carlos Arévalo, Julia Benedetti and Jacobo Garrido (Paralympic Games) and all three are candidates to repeat. Above all, the betanceiro canoeist, Olympic runner-up and world champion with the award-winning Spanish K4 that he shares with Saúl Craviotto, Marcus Cooper and Rodrigo Germade. They got Spain’s place in the 2023 World Cup, in which they were only seventh—yes, they were European champions—and although it is not official, the tickets practically have their names, although they must go through the internal national selection process that will be held in April 10 to 12 in Verdido (Pontevedra), as well as for the Szeged World Cup in May.
JACOBO GARRIDO / La Opinion
In the case of Benedetti, his options increased after his good performance in the last Dubai World Cup. It is in the final phase of the Olympic process and will be played in Shanghai from May 16 to 19 and in Budapest from June 20 to 23. Garrido, finally, does not have a minimum A to attend the Games. Yes, he has made the minimum B and, taking into account that he is one of the regular athletes in the national calls and a swimmer who can stand out in multiple events and distances, his possibilities are real.
JULIA BENNEDETTI / Ricardo Grobas / FDV
More tricks in the pool
With them there would be five. But there are more candidates. In the pool, for example, you also have to have Paula Otero. He has not yet achieved the marks required by the Federation to be in the Games and his last opportunity will be in the Olympic trials that will be held from June 18 to 22 in Mallorca. The distance, 800 and 1,500 meters freestyle, will be their main asset, with María de Valdés herself and Ángela Martínez, who already have their place secured in open water, as rivals. In weightlifting, Irene Martinez He only has the option of the Pre-Olympic next April. When the ranking ends on the 28th, he has to be among the ten best marks in the 59 kilo category, a goal that is far away and for which his continuous physical problems have not allowed him to advance at the expected pace.
Explosion of adapted sport
For the Paralympic Games there are other strong candidates. One is Damian Ramos, European champion and fourth in the world in adapted cycling in category C4 and one of the great Spanish medal options in Paris. In the absence of official confirmation of those selected, his name seems to be a fixture on the list. Finally, Alberto Seoane aims to repeat Paralympic presence in adapted table tennis. He was in Rio 2016, where he earned two diplomas, and missed Tokyo when he fell at the last moment in the Pre-Olympic. Paris, on the other hand, arrives too soon for Almudena Quereda (adapted swimming), Iago Fernández (adapted fencing) and Dani Souto (adapted surfing) who are already looking towards Los Angeles 2028.
Thirty athletes and seven medals
From the Antwerp 1920 Games to Tokyo 2020, there have been thirty A Coruña athletes who have participated in the great sports event par excellence, with seven medals as spoils in these more than one hundred years of A Coruña Olympism history. Ramón González led the way in football in Antwerp 1920, also with a silver at the first opportunity, although it was in a somewhat bizarre way because an illness prevented him from even making his debut and he received the medal in a hospital bed. Then came Juan Monjardín, also in football (Paris 1924), Manuel Suárez-Pumariega in athletics (London 1948) and the man from A Coruña with the most Olympic participations, four: Jaime González Chas in shooting (Mexico 1968, Munich 1972, Montreal 1976 and Moscow 1980 ). Swimmer Fernando Gómez-Reino also competed in Montreal and in Moscow, Paco Buyo (soccer) and Isidoro Hornillos (athletics), as well as Fernando Romay, who also went to Los Angeles in 1984 and won silver with the Spanish basketball team. The decade of the 80s closed in Seoul 1988, where only the judoka Victorino González attended.
Barcelona 1992 was a before and after for Spanish sport and also for A Coruña sport. David Martínez and the first woman from A Coruña in the Games, Ángeles Barreiro (athletics), participated there; Ramiro Bravo (fencing), Alejandro Avecilla (roller hockey), who won silver although the sport was only for exhibition, and Indalecio Iglesias in adapted table tennis, also the first A Coruña native in the Paralympic Games. In Atlanta 1996 the turn was for Andrés Díaz and David Martínez (athletics), Roberto Naveira (judo), Jorge Maciel and Antón Garrote (sailing) and Pucho Boedo (silver in judo for the blind) and José Manuel Taibo (bronze in adapted soccer) . In Sydney 2000 Díaz, Martínez, Maciel and Boedo repeated, who were joined by Francisco Zas (taekwondo). In Athens 2004, Chuny Bermúdez de Castro competed in sailing, while in Beijing 2008 there was no representation from A Coruña. Yes in London 2012 with Sofía Toro, who made history with sailing gold. Rugby players Paula Medín and Vanesa Rial went to Rio, as well as Alberto Seoane in adapted table tennis. And the Tokyo quartet was made up of Arévalo (silver), Reyes, Benedetti and Garrido.
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2024-03-27 06:08:38
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