Spain gets rid of the bad taste of Paris 2024

A year later, Spanish sport closes 2025 with significantly more favorable figures: 28 podiums in Olympic disciplines and modalities. There are a total of 12 gold, 5 silver and 11 bronze medals. The comparison is inevitable and, at the same time, misleading. In this second count, they are not all included: there are many sports, especially team sports, in which there has been no World Cup to measure them. Others, like tennis or golf, lack an equivalent championship to take stock. And disciplines that will be in Los Angeles, but which were not part of the Parisian program, have also been incorporated. Rather than a categorical confrontation, it is appropriate to talk about symptoms and sensations, expressed by the protagonists themselves. What happened from one year to the next? What changes from one Olympic year to the next?

Fermín Cacho, Olympic champion of the still impregnable Games in Barcelona, ​​opens the debate. The man from Soriano has been observing the evolution of Spanish sport for decades and is as surprised as many others by the fact that these 22 medals have not yet been surpassed. “We have a lot of potential to overcome this result. But medals are not given, we work for them. And then you risk everything at a specific moment… You can be the best in the world until that minute, then finish fourth because of a detail. This narrow margin between success and failure explains, according to him, small differences which end up seeming enormous from one season to the next.

From the Olympic year to the World Cup year, only four names return to the podium. The first is María Pérez. The walker was a double medalist in Paris (gold in the mixed relay and silver in the 20 kilometer) and also at the Tokyo World Cup (gold in the 20 and 35 km). However, for the calculations in 2025, we only add the short distance: the one which will be Olympic in Los Angeles in half-marathon format. Also on the podium were the sailors Florian Trittel and Diego Botín (gold in both cases), the boxer Enmanuel Reyes (bronze in both events) and the artistic swimming team (Olympic bronze and world silver). Continuity is therefore not the norm.

“We athletes are growing year by year and how cool is it that it went so well in 2025; This means we are moving in the right direction. »

Iris Tió

Artistic swimming world champion in 2025

“I think everything is a process. It is not easy to reach the medals and there are many factors that can modify the result”, tells this newspaper Iris Tió, whose definitive takeoff this season has led her to also reach the first place on the world podium in solo and in duo, the latter event also Olympic. “We, the athletes, grow from year to year, and how cool it is that 2025 has gone so well, because it means that we are going in the right direction and, maybe, in Los Angeles, we will improve even more.”

“I believe that Spanish sport is improving every year,” says boxer Ayoub Ghadfa, who was unable to confirm his Olympic silver medal at the World Cup due to a biceps injury that still forces him to wear his arm in a sling. “In the case of boxing, we went from ranking two athletes in Rio to four in Tokyo. And, from there, six hours to Paris, with two medals. We also won two World Cup medals. “We’re moving up and getting better and better.”

Andrés Temiño, proclaimed double world archery champion in 2025, was not in Paris. The pressure got the better of him, a variable that also helps explain the difference in results. “We treat the Games differently,” the Zaragoza native told ABC. “It gives us stress that has no explanation. And the more pressure you put on yourself, the worse you perform. That’s how it is.” Today, with two gold medals around his neck, he doesn’t feel like he’s a better goalkeeper than he was then: he’s just changed his approach.

“We treat the Games differently, it gives us stress that has no explanation”

Andres Temiño

Archery World Champion 2025

“Even though we have now won gold at the World Cup, that doesn’t mean we are the best in the world. This means that we did well, that we have to move forward and improve, because if you stay the same, you end up losing,” says Elia Canales, world gold medalist with Temiño in the mixed team. She was in Paris. “We were one point short of the Olympic medal in the mixed team. A point is something that, in the end, does not even depend on you,” says the Catalan, who also protests against the excessive weight given to medals. “The podium is always very tight: sometimes it is reached, other times it is not. Focusing only on the medals is not entirely realistic, but I understand that this is what attracts attention. “Perhaps if diplomas were taken into account, the perception would be different.”

The protagonists agree that the year following the Games is ideal for changing direction or starting new projects, and that all of this influences the results. “The post-Olympic year is generally about changes,” reveals canoeist Sara Ouzande, sixth in Paris with the women’s K4 500 and world champion this year on the same boat. “There are those who relax directly, without competing, and for many others it is generally a turning point. There are changes in the teams, in the training methods, new people arrive… In our case, a lot of things have happened.

“The post-Olympic year is difficult because, in a way, we find ourselves empty,” explains walker Diego García. “It happens to all of us. I also experienced a crisis, but I got back into it and in the World Cup I obtained a much better result than at the Games. In terms of motivation, this is an obstacle that must be overcome. And if in Spain we adopted it so early, it is good news. “The key is to have fun,” adds Iris Tió. “Remember we are here to do something we love. “We don’t do open-heart surgery on anyone.”

The start of the new cycle brought unexpected medals in sports like surfing, rugby or sea rowing, a modality that will be integrated into the Olympic program in Los Angeles, and which also explains how the way athletes work will change in the face of such a momentous event. “We have a lot to discover and a lot of room for improvement. This year served as a test and each year the load will be added gradually,” says Ander Martín, vice-world champion in this discipline in 2025, who notes a certain contempt for what his teammates achieved in Paris. “The year of the Games is always the most difficult.”

Her success, as well as that of other young people like Naia Laso (skateboarding), Lena Moreno (taekwondo) or Andrés García (Olympic shooting), mark the course towards Los Angeles: an event still far in the calendar, but already present, day by day, in the minds of Spanish athletes.