Be careful what you long for. They say that the gods punish men by granting them their wishes
The Warrior in the Shadow of the Cherry Tree, David B. Gil
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Sandra Sánchez (42) tells me:
–I wanted Jesus to train me. He was my handsome coach, the most handsome of all. He was the one who won in the selectors' ranking.
And her gaze turns to her husband, Jesús del Moral, who accompanies us in the talk. And Jesús, the handsome coach, the man who has made Sandra Sánchez a karate icon, blushes.
The couple, today gathered in an office at the Daedo headquarters in Barcelona, comes and goes around the world, now giving a seminar in Italy, or in Sweden, in the United States, in Argentina or in Mexico, although Sandra Sánchez, already Retired from competition, she prefers to daydream thinking about those days of her youth, almost twenty years ago, when she drove from her Talavera de la Reina to Alcalá de Henares to see her loved one.
–And between one town and the other there are 160 kilometers, eh? “Castilla la Mancha is very big,” says Sandra Sánchez, who speaks quickly to me and is close and gives smiles and anecdotes.
He never shows off stripes.
(That wins my heart: no one would say that she is an Olympic champion – Tokyo 2020 –, world and European karate champion, the best of her time, perhaps the best in the history of international kata).
–But I was very clear that I wanted Jesus to train me. By then I already had my Spanish champion titles, and yet no one called me to join the national team. And that's why I had taken a break, I had gone to Australia, backpacking, to study English. And he had ended up teaching karate classes. I spent a year there, when I was gone for six weeks! Upon returning, I decided that I wanted to go to the Jesus group.
–Why with him?
–Because I knew their systems and I knew myself. By then, I already had a degree in Sports Sciences and Nursing. He knew that genetically he had superior conditions than normal. He had studied me! I didn't want to go back to where I was before I went to Australia. I understood that Jesus could help me.
–And you convinced him quickly?
–Not so much: I signed up for his classes and every day I came and went, I spent my time in the car. Of course, since he took classes from him at his gym, Jesús couldn't kick me out. I think after a month I felt sorry for him and then he decided to take care of me...
(...)
I ask Jesús del Moral:
–And what did you see in her?
–Apart from enormous interest, I saw physical qualities that were difficult to find. Unusual power and speed, an extraordinary work capacity, her desire to improve... When Sandra went to a tournament, she did so with the idea of doing better than the previous one. She didn't compare herself to rivals, but to her own previous version of herself. That made her evolve. After the competition, she watched videos to analyze how to grow. Even today, when she no longer competes, she still wants me to train her.
–And why do you train, if you are not going to compete anymore? -I ask her.
–To teach the seminars, I have to make figures. And for that, I must stay in shape.
–And why did you retire in 2022?
–Let's see, when 2021 was starting, I told myself: 'If this year I win the Games, the World Cup and the European Championship, I take my hat off and I'm leaving.' And I went and won everything... But listen, then retiring wasn't so easy, huh? What happens is that karate will not be Olympic again: karatekas were the flower of a day. And since I wasn't an Olympian, they took away my ADO scholarship, I couldn't live off of this anymore. From there, everything went in a chain. I had to make a living, and I couldn't force myself and get to a championship in which I lost...
-And now?
“We won't stop now,” he tells me.
And the couple tells me that they have created an online platform to teach classes (chikaraclub.com). And that Rakuten has produced a documentary: Karate-Do, the path of Sandra Sánchez. And a movie is coming for 2025: Karateka (A3 Media).
–Based on real events! –Sandra Sánchez shouts–. Pinch me, please, I don't believe everything that is happening to me in this life.
(And I don't pinch her, because what she is experiencing is as real as her life itself.)
