Twelve tests in a week, six different choreographies, six mental schemes and an aquatic marathon saturated the body of (Barcelona, 2002) in the Singapore World Cups, when last Wednesday he took the phone in the aquatic center. He had just won the gold in the free single and his voice sounded sweet and distracted, such as being carried away by the waves of the storm of a contest that would consecrate it, in the opinion of the Court of the International Federation, as the best swimmer on the planet. Six of the nine medals that Spain reaped are yours. Three golds place it in a dimension that Gemma Mengual, Andrea Fuentes or Ona Carbonell, their predecessors in the national team did not know.
Ask. You became the first Spanish swimmer to win a gold in just free and got it with a blow of effect at the beginning of the routine. Could you explain what it means to swim with a submerged head forming a vertical with the body and making pulls and spagats for 20 seconds?
Answer. We seek to have a high difficulty because each movement is more or less. We seek to include movements that score more and add as much as possible. This implies more apnea and vertical to be able to teach the height [del cuerpo y las piernas fuera del agua]. This is very important because sometimes people believe that movements must be made as quickly as possible to raise the difficulty, but forget that in the execution score the height is valued, and if you do not give importance it can penalize you.
P. What is the most difficult figure of your single?
R. The first, because it is the longest and has many unbalanced. Los unbalanced They are vertical inclined, which are very complicated to swim. I include them in the routine because they score quite a lot and because so far not all soloists could do them. They have put them in the regulation recently and many people have had to learn them. The first person I saw them was training with Mayu Fujiki [seleccionadora de España hasta 2024]. Ona taught me the remade under water. It is a matter of position and you have to gain strength in the arms, especially on the left. You have to place your legs aside and keep the body straight underwater, and for this you must work the abdominal and especially the oblique.
P. Do artistic swimmers are prohibited from weights?
R. What’s up! We make crossfit. Other years we have made more weights. It is important to have good muscles. First not to injure us, and then to have strength and energy to make all movements.
P. Are you in love?
R. Yes, I am. I have a partner and I am in love.
P. Interpreted the Hymn to love by Edith Piaf in his free single, and Baby, I’m Gonna Leave Youof Led Zeppelin, in the mixed duo, and won two golds because no one else could represent love and heartbreak. Does good artistic performance require personal experience or personal experience demand artistic performance?
R. I make two alone and by chasing that this year the two music are about love: in the sole technician I interpret the version of the I stay with you From Rosalia, which is the one that reminds me of my partner. He Hymn to love That Celine Dion sings reminds me of the love I have for this sport. I listened to it at the inauguration of the Paris Games and excited myself.
P. If the synchro is asked, leave the homeland and leave the friends, as Edith Piaf says?
R. It’s a bit like that. You have to make many sacrifices to train, but I always dreamed of this. My parents told me that when I was five years old I saw on TV and decided to try the syncro. My parents took me to the Kallipolis club. I remember my first competition with six years. And I remember that with eight I looked for YouTube to Gemma and Natalia Ischenko and I had hours watching syncro videos. All the choreographies that the selection made with Anna Tarrés at that time impacted me a lot. I saw them for hours. Especially Gemma’s alone in the 2009 World Cups with Yesterdaythe tango of Ona and Andrea, the Mar of the team in London, the Africa of the team in Rome.
P. Andrea Fuentes says that there has never been a swimmer like you. What do you mean?
R. Don’t know!
P. Where is your great asset as a swimmer? The length of the legs, expressiveness, slip …?
R. I clearly like expression and art much more. But when I was smaller, they criticized me: ‘He lacks technique, he lacks vertical …’. I know that the artistic part is very important but and I execute well to be able to be at the top. Natalia Ischenko, the most artistic of the Russian soloists, was a crack technically, swimmed super tall and had expressiveness. Not as much as Gemma, but you can’t explode just one thing to be world champion. You have to have everything. Because you cannot be artistically expressive if you have no strength to move in the water. It happens to me when we start training the choreographies. Until you take all the physicist notes that you get tired and you are going crawling. Only when the body adapts physically to the entire choreography you can give 100% artistically.
P. Water as an unnatural, hostile, dangerous medium, provides a more conducive scenario for the dramatic expression than classic theater or ballet?
R. Maybe yes, I hadn’t thought about it. I notice that I flow and I like that a lot. Game with water. It is where I find myself more comfortable and that helps me express myself.
P. Artistic swimming is fundamentally a team sport and you are the reference of Spain. What ideas do you think you want to convey the selection?
R. . And Dream Team. And for that we try to have a good vibes, respect, sacrifice, unity and creativity. To be the best team we have to do unique things that anyone has done. We know that we are very creative and we can express very well. Other teams no. China or Russia are like machines. These challenges motivate us and make us grow. It makes us get our claw.
