The Spanish María de Valdés (Fuengirola, Málaga, 1998) won the silver medal this Saturday in the 10 kilometers of open water at the Doha World Cup, which gives her an Olympic place for Paris 2024.
The woman from Malaga was surpassed in a 'photo finish' by the Dutch Sharon van Rouewendaal and the Portuguese Angélica André completed the podium. De Valdés thus achieves the first medal in the history of Spain in this event.
The other Spanish participant, Ángela Martínez from Elche, who was thirteenth, also achieved her Olympic ticket. This is a historic milestone, it will be the first time that there are two Spaniards participating in open water in the Olympic Games.
For María and Ángela, being able to participate in the Games is "a dream", in fact in this discipline there are not so many Spaniards who have achieved it and Spain has never had two representatives in this Olympic competition.
Before them were Yurema Requena (Beijing 2008), Erika Villaécija (London 2012, Rio 2016) and Paula Ruiz in Tokyo. This summer, there will be two more swimming in the waters of the Seine.
María de Valdés' career seemed drawn out. She came out with the idea of being in the lead and fighting with the best. The question was whether she could hold out, but after preparation at altitude and a difficult year, everything went perfectly.
The woman from Malaga was coming off a difficult year. The death of his father three months ago, the thorn in his side of not qualifying for the Tokyo Games and a medical operation were three mental problems that she has resolved in the best way.
"I can't believe it," he told EFE, still trembling, as soon as the test was over. Everything went as planned. She beat the American Katie Grimes, bronze medalist at the last World Cup, at the start, and she never left the lead.
She was always positioned among the front seats, with Grimes, van Rowendaaal, the Italian Tadeucci and the Brazilian Junglut. Little by little, more swimmers were added, such as the Portuguese Mafalda Rosa, the Japanese Ebina, the South African Lotter and especially the Monegasque Lisa Pou.
Without news from Leonie Beck, the world champion, de Valdés went about his business. He passed the buoys with ease, you could see him enjoying the water, controlling the situation and never leaving the front positions.
And the work done paid off. She remembered her father, her family, the technical team, the entire path she has traveled to get here, the time she narrowly missed out on the Tokyo Games and that operation that left her without participating in the last World.
"It has been a very complicated race, due to the tide and the currents. I have managed to manage it as best as possible and in the end I have tried to be neck and neck with the best in each lap, ensuring that no one escapes. It was the opportunity I had and I didn't. I let her escape," the woman from Malaga insisted to EFE.
De Valdés, with his medal, has made history. She is the second in Spain in this discipline after the one achieved in Seville 2008 by Yurema Requena, so she was a bronze.
"World runner-up and qualified for the Games. I can't ask for more now, I have to believe it, because I'm still on cloud nine and it's a dream come true," she said in statements to EFE.
He had studied the degree like this and it turned out well. "I had to hold on from start to finish, I had it in my head. Thirteen places were at stake, I wanted to always be in the top ten, because I knew that if I dropped out I wouldn't be able to recover. That was my strategy," he says.
So it was. Not qualifying for the last Tokyo Games was fuel, personal inconveniences, and other extra motivations. "I had to wait a long time to get rid of this thorn, but in the end I did it," she said.
