On the verge of retirement age, Luis Moya (La Coruña, 1960) remains in exceptional shape. He has made sports, especially swimming, his reason for being. Always positive, he smiles even stronger now after being named captain and flag bearer of the Spanish team at the FIA Motorsport Games, the motorsport Olympic Games, which will be held in Valencia starting on Wednesday the 23rd.
-Captain and standard bearer of the Spanish team in the World Motorsport Games. How do you live it?
-I received a call a few months ago from the Spanish Federation, they offered me this opportunity and I didn’t hesitate for a second. I am very Spanish, so they couldn’t have given me a better gift. It is a tremendous pride to represent our country. And also, in Valencia. We have to brag about this a lot. I don’t know if they are going to be made again in Spain. Of course, I’m not going to see him again.
-They try to give an Olympic patina to a sport, in principle, very far from that world. Will it set?
-If you asked me this question in 2019, when the first edition was held in Rome, perhaps I would have some doubts. Today I don’t have any. It’s going to curdle. Because? Because that first year there were six disciplines and in Valencia there will be 26. In a short time it has increased a lot. There are still big names missing, but there will be more in the future. It will pull up.
-What is Luis Moya’s day-to-day life like?
-Doing a lot of sports. I train a lot. I just finished an open water swim trip. It’s what I like the most. Not running, because my back is bad. I only run if they chase me. Sport keeps me well. It doesn’t solve the problems, but it helps to deal with them. I have a fairly comfortable life and sport helps me think, do things well, and make good decisions.
-He is very competitive, but I don’t know if he reaches the level of Carlos Sainz…
-It is impossible to be more competitive than Carlos. When we started in the World Rally Championship there was no physical preparation. He and I were the first. It wasn’t pleasant because we were in the car for ten or twelve hours and when we got to the hotel we would put on some sneakers and both of us would go running. He is more of a sprinter, he has more finishing than me. We were doing ten kilometers, and I knew that if I wanted to beat him I had to leave him one kilometer from the end. He had to pick up the pace and see if he was getting tired. Otherwise, he always beat me in the sprint. Then we would hug each other and rest. He taught me to compete and work hard. In life, no matter how much talent you have, and Carlos has it, you must also have the ability to work. When you put the two things together there is no failure. It only comes when you stop trying. And this never happened with Carlos. It’s one thing to lose and another to be beaten. It is lost when you do not give yourself fully or do not give everything. Carlos and I have been beaten many times, because the opponent also counts, but we have lost very few.
-I have heard you say that the famous ‘try to tear it off’ episode, which cost them a World Cup, you do not consider it a bad memory.
-If it were a bad memory it would be terrible, because last year marked 25 years of that and there is not a week in which I am not reminded of it. People know me by my voice and every time I get in a taxi they say the phrase to me. Like everything, I tried to turn it around and managed to turn it into something positive. That day, when we opened the hood of the car, there was a hole this big in the engine (he gestures with his open hands). I thought: ‘that’s not going to start in life.’ But I’m left with the fact that the first reaction was to try to start. Try to reach the end. And not only did I say ‘try to start it’, but Carlos got inside the car and tried. We knew it wasn’t going to start, but we tried and until the end we gave everything we had. That time they beat us, but we didn’t lose.
-And if that’s not a bad memory. Which one is it?
-I have bad moments, like everyone else. But I am so tremendously positive that I convince myself that things are going to turn out well for me. If I’m driving and they tell me there won’t be a place to park. I say yes and I end up finding it. You have to believe that things are going to turn out well.
-More than twenty years have passed since his retirement and people continue to remember him. What is worth more, those two world titles or the affection they continue to show you?
-Man, I have great memories of the first title, especially. From the welcome when we arrived in Spain. And the same thing happens to Carlos. But now the tributes are seen in a different way, no longer being in the maelstrom of the competition. I feel very loved, and therefore very happy.
-He closed his co-pilot cycle with Sainz and, with some exceptions, put that stage on hold.
-I’ll probably do something with Carlos one day. Many times, when we talk, he tells me ‘Luis, we will have to do a rally together.’ He already knows that I never wanted to go to the Dakar. And he asked me several times. But I would love to do a rally with him. The day he tells me ‘Luis, look, I’m not going to the Dakar anymore or that I feel like doing a classic rally’, I’m delighted with life. Physically I am fine, therefore, I would like it very much.
-Carlos’s thing with the next Dakar is already making things worse… Will he be able to handle this new challenge?
-I have no doubt, because there will be no other driver better prepared than him. In September you start planning everything, including food. He takes great care of everything. And when he gets into a car he makes it a winner. It won’t be easy for him to win this year, but surely there is a second option. I don’t know if there will be many more because he already says that the end is coming.
-Nadal retires, but Alcaraz is there. Will there ever be another Sainz in the world of rallying?
-Carlos Sainz there has been one and there will not be another like it. But someone will come, because in Spain we also have an extraordinary sports academy. It is being seen in motorsports.
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