News : Fernando Carro’s ‘reset’ after the Tokyo Olympics

“I don’t know what would have happened, obviously, but just as the final was and when it arrived … Well, well, we can never know.” Fernando Carro faced the competition of his life. After stoically waiting more than a year to fulfill his dream, the Madrilenian was in the best moment of form of his career (better even than that of that incredible summer of 2019) at the gates of the Tokyo Olympics. They were not going to be as he had imagined, as he had followed so many times on television with thousands of spectators roaring from the stands, but that was not going to take away an iota of illusion or magic.

The debut D-Day was July 30. Carro shared series in the Japanese capital with Girma, Miura, Kigen and company. But even before setting foot in the tartan, the sensations were not good for the Madrilenian, who ended up retiring due to some inconvenience. The most inopportune of his entire career. “It was a blow. Arrived extremely well. I had perfect hamstrings on the ride, but after the hell of a ride we got into it broke me. Too bad because there was a wonderful final left and I have that feeling of having missed an opportunity ”.

Fall and rise

The emotional blow was tremendous. Both for him and for his coach Arturo Martín: “We have really had a bad time on an emotional level. After Tokyo, the coach wanted to disconnect completely and I understand. It has been a lot of emotions ”. Recovering from that was not going to be an easy undertaking, but if Fernando Carro is characterized by something, it is by finding motivation even under the rocks.

“I tried to recover because I have a series of commitments with my brand. As I returned I had the initiative to continue with the season, but I have been training only on the machine. I regained my hamstring within two weeks of returning from Tokyo, and shortly thereafter the sciatic nerve in my other leg was pinched. The return trip from Japan was even worse, I made a 10 hour layover in Paris. You arrive at the Games at full capacity, like a missile at the muscular level and they put you in less than six days a time change of seven hours and two trips of practically two days ”.

Trip

“On an emotional level, we had to turn it around, find a bit of optimism within all the darkness that we could be and find ourselves and reset. On September 11 we go with Clara (Viñarás, her partner, also an athlete) as backpackers in Central America. This whole year has been complicated. I tried it in Budapest and Paris, but I was out of my mind ”.

“The one I come back from the trip I have some really cool stories ahead of me. Expectations and new goals ”, adds a Car that disappears from the map for a few weeks to meet again and return with charged batteries. Of attitude, without a doubt, it is left over.