Laura García Caro searches her memory and can’t find it. No, he has never had a similar bad dream, no nightmare had disturbed him as much as the one he experienced three meters from the last line of the 20 kilometer march, intense heat, bright blue track, Spanish flag around his neck already prepared to fly, and a bronze medal, sweated and fought for almost 90 minutes, which he already thought was his. The end of the walking test returned to the stadium after a decade away, and the walkers, with so many reasons to feel marginalized, celebrated it happily, the crossing of the marathon gate tunnel, the clamor of the stadium at their arrival, the emotion, adrenaline, and that was the athlete from Lepe. The clamor that had risen had not subsided when the first two arrived a few meters in front of her, two Italian queens in Rome, the Olympic champion Nelly Palmisano and the very veteran, 38 years old, Valentina Trapletti, but the murmurs, the voices, the shouts, oohs, and so on, changed their tone. They were the alarm voices that children raise in front of the puppets in the park, when the brave prince is going to attack the brave prince with the baton from behind, treacherously, be careful! careful! behind your back! It was the last stretch. Behind Laura García-Caro, the Ukrainian Lyudmila Olyanovska was accelerating, like the cat in seven boots, at full speed, and she was getting closer, getting closer. And everyone was screaming. And the Spanish woman, exhausted—the last two kilometers traveled in eight minutes and 40 seconds, as fast as she could—she didn’t realize it. She only found out too late, when she raised her fist happily, already feeling like the owner of the medal that meant the end of two years of suffering, of a persistent covid that left her out of shape, always tired, lost, after being sixth in the Oregon World Cup. There were three meters left. She had just enough time to see the Ukrainian – 31 years old, already European bronze in Athens 2014 and a four-year suspension for doping between 2015 and 2019 – out of the corner of her eye, an exhalation that froze her.
😰THE UNGRATEFUL IMAGE OF THE DAY!
Laura García-Caro is left without a medal just a few meters from the finish line.
She was already celebrating the bronze when the Ukrainian Olyanovska passed her on the same finish line.
😞His face in the replay says it all. pic.twitter.com/4vvGAegQKN
— Teledeporte (@teledeporte) June 7, 2024
“In the last lap, the truth is that I was giving everything, I was quite exhausted and in the end…” García Caro, 29 years old, remains speechless in the mixed zone, the most painful space, the confrontation with reality, despite the fact that her manager, former Peñafiel athlete Álvaro Rodríguez, is waiting for her with a bouquet of flowers, a hug and some words of consolation and strength in her ear. “In fact I tried to sprint as soon as possible because I knew that a final sprint was not going to be the best for me and I wanted to try to achieve the greatest possible advantage,” continues the athlete from Huelva who trains in Madrid with José Antonio Quintana. “It is true that in the 300 and 200 I was looking back because I knew I was relatively close, but in the 100 I looked again and saw that I don’t know if I was 40 or 50 meters ahead and I tried to sprint I was stuck with what I had and I already thought it didn’t catch me. And well, the truth is that I haven’t even felt it anymore and well, I thought I already had it. And I haven’t even looked at the stadium’s giant screen. She was focused on getting there. And, yes, perhaps they gave me the Spanish flag too soon, upon entering the stadium, but at no time have I felt like a medalist before my time.”
The nightmare finale race was beautiful and competitive. Two girls from the south of Europe – Palmisano is from Apulia, next to Taranto, in the heel of the boot, hard, barren land next to the Ionian, land cracked like the hands of peasants – with magnificent athletic quality spinning alongside 33 more competitors around the Mussolinian marble stadium, behind the cyclopean statues that represent all the Italian provinces, a hedge on one side, asphalt, marble and even mosaic tiles under their feet. And at kilometer 10 Palmisano flies, tricolor flower in her hair, tricolor stickers on her lean body, rhythmic swaying of her hips, small foot carrying her, and in the air the voice of the most famous Apulian, Domenico Modugno, singing the I will fly. Several kilometers at 4m 20s, almost 14 per hour, and the feet suspended in the air for no more than 40 thousandths of a second, and goodbye. García Caro, together with Cristina Montesinos, from Terrassa, Valentí Massana’s pupil, holds her own pace and waits for the penultimate kilometer to accelerate towards the medal that slips, treacherously, through her fingers. “I have really had a very bad year and a half and I have managed to turn it around with all my strength,” says the walker, who does not run away from her responsibility. “I hope to learn from this mistake. Keep fighting, keep working and come back stronger next time.” Montesinos finished sixth.
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