Just over five months before the Paris Olympic Games, the time at the Doha World Cup that concluded this Sunday has been an oasis of hope for Spanish swimming in its long journey through the desert.
Immersed in one of those cyclical crises, longer than expected, waiting for the emergence and maturation of new talents, the discipline of online tests had hit rock bottom a year and a half ago: it left the European Championship in Rome 2022 empty-handed (for first time in 16 years without any medal), and she linked three World Cups without getting on the podium (since Mireia Belmonte in Budapest 2017). In Doha the streak was broken: the green shoots that had appeared in Fukuoka 2023 and Rome 2022 came to fruition, and Spain is beginning to see the light from the bottom of the pool.
The Spanish delegation leaves the Qatar World Cup with a smile and good feelings that the worst seems to be behind us, and the best is yet to come. This is corroborated by the 10 medals in the global medal table (13th position, although 7th in number), two of them in in-line swimming – for the first time in seven years –, four in the safe trump of the artistic, two in the infallible water polo (two bronzes for the men's and women's teams), and two more in disciplines until this championship that were unpublished and with little tradition in Spain, such as open water (silver for María de Valdés) and diving (bronze in synchronized).
These 10 medals – the third best Spanish harvest in a World Cup after Rome 2009 (11) and Barcelona 2013 (12) – are combined with the notable recovery of online events, the Achilles heel of recent years. To measure the evolution, it is enough to look at the finals played: seven in Doha, three in Fukuoka'23 and zero in Budapest'22.
To understand this recovery of results it is necessary to look at the protagonists of the Spanish resurgence: Hugo González de Oliveira, the phenomenon from Palma, whose training programs in the United States with Dave Durden and with Taja González in Canoe are beginning to bear fruit (two medals in three finals – in the last one, yesterday, of 50 m backstroke, he was 6th –), and the men's speed, thanks to the new batch of Mario Mollá, Luis Domínguez, Sergio de Celis, Carles Coll and César Castro, cheeky young people between 20 and 23 years old, who have already touched bronze in the European '22, and who have entered three finals and have achieved two Olympic minimums, the last one, in the 4x100 medley (sixth in the final yesterday , despite being classified third).
The Doha World Cup has opened the door to the Paris Games for around twenty Spanish swimmers due to their good results. Thus, in online swimming, Hugo González achieved a place for the 100 and 200 backstroke, which adds to the 200 styles that he already had since Fukuoka; Mario Mollá in the 100 butterfly; and Carlos Garach in the 800 freestyle; as well as the 4x100 free and 4x100 medley relays.
Also in Doha, María de Valdés and Ángela Martínez issued their Olympic ticket in open water (10 km), with silver for the first and 13th place for the second. It is the first time that Spain has representation in this modality in a Games.
In artistic swimming, the team (8 members) secured their presence in Paris after winning silver in the technical exercise, and the duo formed by Iris Thió and Alisa Ozhogina after achieving bronze. And in diving, Adrián Abadía and Nico García Boissier qualified by achieving bronze in the synchronized three-meter springboard. The young Ana Carvajal (16) already had her ticket on the 10 m platform when entering the final in Fukuoka (8th), as well as the two water polo teams.
“The feelings are very positive and satisfactory, these results are an important injection for all athletes,” commented Fernando Carpena, the president of the RFEN to this newspaper. "Our aspiration is to bring 60 athletes to Paris, both individually and in teams, but we have to put our feet on the ground: there are five months left until the Games and we have to continue preparing."
Carpena emphasizes that despite the absences in Doha, "there are important marks", and the two medals and the seven finals in the online events represent "a growth in self-esteem and confidence for the swimmers." “We still have the Palma Open, in which we hope to incorporate at least one more swimmer to Paris.”
The president does his calculations – which he prefers not to make public – and he comes up with half a dozen possible medals in the Paris Games: the two water polo players "who always compete for everything", the artistic one "who in her 4-5 participations competes for a medal ", open waters "depending on how the race develops", Hugo González "who has the most options, in addition to the relays", and why not synchronized jumps.
"We have to go to Paris fully knowing where we are. There are not many who will be able to reach the final, but Hugo can carry the team," Carpena hopes in an assessment of the results for La Vanguardia from Doha.
