“In a year no one will remember you” | Relief

You are a teenager, an athlete, a promising one. You have a scholarship to a high achievement center and your life is your learning. You forget to go to class, it’s not worth it, you waste hours if you want to reach the top. After 15 years, your career is over, your pockets are not full, and you have a life ahead of you full of unknowns, with almost no preparation, because the only thing you know is your discipline. This is an alarming prospect faced by many athletes who have devoted years to training, but have not reached the top, without Olympic medals and world champion titles. Alvaro Martin wanted to talk about these stories with Quique Peinado in Relevo’s program “El Vestuario” (now also available on Spotify). Alvaro truly reached the top with two Olympic medals at the Paris Olympics. He considers himself lucky, but it is clear to him that something more can be protected, to give a flow of oxygen to all those who form a platoon and end up in oblivion.

Hey, how would you explain to people what the life of an elite athlete is like now that you haven’t completely zoned out, but can now fully appreciate the situation? Because your life as an elite athlete ends today, but it begins at 14-15 years old, when you are still a child.

The first thing you need to be clear about is that it is possible The results you want will appear in 10 or 12 years. Because it’s normal, it’s normal not to get into the elite in a year and already achieve great results, and this requires a lot of perseverance, sacrifice, and sometimes going to competitions, not getting an excellent result, putting your head down. and knowing that you are on the right path. These moments of doubt are quite difficult and you need help from many people around you.

If you had a son tomorrow and he told you he wanted to become an elite athlete, what would you say?

I would say no, because high-level sports are unhealthy, no matter how much we would like to disguise it somehow. I would like him to play sports, but not at a high level. I would hate to see the disappointment that I saw in other colleagues. that with the same sacrifice as me, they did not achieve their goal. I saw people who felt very bad.

And to sum it up, do you think you won more than everyone else because you did something better, or are there so many factors that maybe it was luck at one particular moment?

There is a pinch of luck. In this whole recipe, the last ingredient is a pinch of luck, and I had a lot of them, I can say that, but other colleagues cannot.

What do you think when you see the cases of these people?

It hurts me, especially because when I talk about high-level sports, I end up sometimes having the feeling that Within federations we are in the Excel drawer. When you’re in your locker you have your name but The day you fail, that field will be replaced with another name and that’s it.get your life. It really hurts, now I was able to leave while on top, and how great it is, but it’s okay to eat there are a lot of people who retire without being at the top and no one is going to call themno one will tell them if they need something. This is very difficult, because, in addition, in 90% of cases there is loneliness from facing a new life completely from scratch and without any challenge.

And today, if you decide to retire and you haven’t done your financial or economic homework, you go out and what?

Well, listen, I’ll say this: this is crapliterally, that’s why I insist that you study. You shouldn’t say: “I’m a high-level athlete and I can’t study.” I’m not saying you need to get a higher education. I’m talking about taking a vocational training module because It is terrible that, for example, I have seen 16-year-olds who dropped out of school to devote themselves to the elite.. The thing is, even if you’re doing well, Damn, you’re going to retire at 35, tell me what you’re going to do for the rest of your life.. So is it a shame that we don’t make a lot of money? Yes, but it will also help you take the step and learn.

Sure, but it has to come from you or it has to be a federal structure, it doesn’t require you to do that, but it definitely puts it there.

It has to come from you, but also, damn it, for example In Blum, depending on the sport, some federation required you to go to classes or not.. We’re talking about high school, right? I’m not telling you that Federation X forces you to go to university, but to high school? Do you have a high school diploma or ESO? The fact is that in any profession you will be asked for a minimum of ESO, no matter how successful you are in any sport. Okay dude, when you retire, will he still be a burglar? Because, most likely, they will call you on the first day if you did very well, but in a month or a year, no one will remember about you, of course.

And shouldn’t the Federation facilitate this? I always think about training, I constantly offer athletes courses for their preparation, that it is the federations themselves who guarantee that damn, when an athlete leaves the discipline, he can be a person who has something. It is not even good for the image of the federations themselves to have athletes who show poor results after finishing their careers.

Quique, but look A few years ago, a TVE report entitled “From the Tribune to Oblivion” was published.with athletes who won medals in Barcelona 92. The situation they found themselves in was unfortunate.but because we only look at sports in the short term, because we are short-sighted, we do not see beyond what that athlete who dropped out of school and focused on training will be. This is if you sell the idea of ​​a federation with the words: “Look, I left school to dedicate myself 100% to this and I’m going to bring you x amount of medals,” what will the federation tell you? “Come on, do it. I like this idea.”. And “besides, I will become more professional, I will sleep as much as I need, I will take good care of myself…”

Why is it that when we think of the president of almost any federation or many federations, we think of characters who are not quite right?

What does it feel like when everything is not okay?

I don’t know, they’re not the best at what they do.

Let’s see, the commitment that I would like a person to make as president of a federation is that even if you are a private association, you have a public function. You will have to act as if, with all due respect, you are an official. Not in a bad sense of the word, but in a good one. ‘Cause sometimes we realize that there is some presidents, less and less, understand that the association is their farm. And no. Sometimes the budgetary allocations that the president has are confusing, and I think that, for example, there is a federation in which athletes practically cannot afford to even travel with the team, and its president charges x amount of money (I give an example). money, because this way people understand it more easily) it’s a shame.

And is this happening in the Spanish Athletics Federation?

The Spanish Athletics Federation is a very large organization, so I think that The budget item is correct. Do I wish there was a lot less of it? Yeah. Because at the end of the day, if we’re talking about the aid system, for example, and there’s an athlete who can’t be given a scholarship, even though we have quite high salaries, in the end it’s a little shocking. Moreover, the federations practically live off the budget, which comes mainly from government funding. If they lived off their sponsors or the income they could get, do whatever you want. I mean, give yourself a 5 million salarybut if, in addition, you are practically supported by CSD… you have to act, I don’t know, with ethics, with the attitude of “I’m here as long as I have to be to help.” my sport, without thinking that this is my farm.” And I don’t mean the Spanish Athletics Federation, I mean all the federations.

You have had many battles. Raoul Chapado, President of the Athletics Federation, I don’t know if he’s the nicest person for you. When you retire, many people say: “President of the Athletics Federation.” You’re trying to say please no. But I don’t know if that’s true, not now, but in the future yes

Well, you journalist, do you think that I am ready to challenge the Spanish Athletics Federation with a budget of 16 million euros?

Man, I believe there are a lot of untrained people who have already become presidents of many federations.

And it’s a mistake, but does the fact that many people have done it mean that we should do it? I realize that I would, of course, like to improve a lot in athletics. Now, What I’m not going to do is go into a place if I’m going to make more mistakes than successes. I would love to, but I’m not ready. Besides, it seems that if you were a high-level athlete, it means you can challenge the federation. The thing is, Maybe the federation should be taken over by someone who knows how to manage a budget of 16 million?who knows how to deal with what an office is like in everyday life, because yes, career, competitions, the minimum we all knowbut now in everyday office life I have no idea and eventually it will end up in my hands. They seriously suggested it to me several times, but I said no, and the idea is still that it’s not true.

The idea is to educate you and in the future yes.

I don’t know, the future is uncertain, now I want to help and will help everyone I know, but the president of the federation, I believe that now and in the near future I will not be able to.

So, what are your plans for October?

Study to obtain a dual master’s degree, which is a Master of Access to the Legal Profession and a Master of Business Law degree. My idea is propaganda. Since I was in a lot of trouble and, after all, I really needed the law, I really liked the subject of the legal profession.

In the field of sports law, there are many law firms that employ people who specialize in sports.

Let’s see, I’m going to specialize in business law, but I also know that in the future I will do sports law because I love it; I have already lectured on sports law, but I want to get a master’s degree because, after all, it is my passion – sports. What I’ve been learning is like a combo because if I dedicated myself 100% to it, it wouldn’t help me.

Hey, you have two degrees, right? Politics and law, which is also at least law, it’s not just some kind of degree, it’s hard to get, but you’re just studying now, do you think you’ll be okay? Because, of course, before you studied, and then you put on shorts and compete.

Well, I don’t know, I have to fill the time because I don’t like it when I have too much free time, I’m one of those people who don’t really like leisure time, and so I’ll continue training, I’ll continue to do other things, my colleagues keep calling me so that I can help them with various issues, be it anti-doping, your federation or something else. I’m not going to do this alone, it’s unthinkable and I don’t want to.