Andrea Fuentes: “It’s hard to be a boy here: they give much more but their concentration lasts much less”

-What assessment does the first World Cup in Paris?

-Superpositive. I wanted to get these results, but above all that the team felt confident competing and gave a very professional image; And we have far exceeded expectations.

-Vuelve with six medals …

-Yes it’s true. Imagine … We have given the clove with the strategy for this competition. It was the first since the changes of norms and now you have to see how people react. When there are changes, we must lead as soon as possible and not copy anyone. That they copy us and so we always go one step ahead. Now we have to move fast, they will start copying and we have to take off.

-Lan the Olympic silver with the United States, how do you feel ahead of them in this championship?

-It was hard emotionally. Much mixture of feelings because they are girls that I have trained for seven years, that I have seen what hurt them and I also have a feeling towards them. But we already knew it, we talked and told ourselves that sport is sport. But also excited to give my country everything I have inside, which I already touched.

-In Spain, you have to succeed to value you?

-Don’t know. I guess you had to prove it before. The United States had a very low level. It is normal to love me. He had never been a coach and needed someone. Spain was up. Neither Spain was going to trust someone without experience nor I felt prepared. Now is the right moment. I have made my career and I want to give Spain more.

-Was he afflicted with this first result as a Spanish coach?

-To China or Russia … Now you have to win the wolves really. Russia was not last year. Russia is a Top selection, Top Top. We have surpassed one and now we go for more. The following objective is China.

-Oh really?

-Yeah. We will have to work hard, very intelligently and defend the strengths that we have and they don’t. I don’t know how long it will take, if a year or twenty, but you can.

-In the Singapore World Cup will already be Russia …

-I am happy to return, although it is obviously more difficult to obtain results. It is a country that gave sport a lot and that was missed.

-Would you have accepted Russian swimmers?

-As were called to the door recently. I don’t like this because this is not a market. I do not like to throw one Spanish from outside, even if it is better because it has trained elsewhere.

-What is easier: a team like the United States, which had no experience, or one like Spain that already has a level?

-It’s different. A team that does not know anything you have to build from scratch; And in one that already knows a lot there are aspects in which everything is faster, but there are things that you have to undo and build again, because habits are very different. His philosophy was very different from mine. I have spent two months deconstructing to build again. Actually, we have done less than changing habits that, for my liking, a number one team should not have.

-What will have had more resources, right?

-Clear. In the United States there was no budget. We had two streets of a pool to train, with very cold water. Sometimes they threw us … people think that the United States’s aid and infrastructure are very important and not. The budget was ten times less than the one here. This has helped me show myself that you don’t need great things, but simply work very well. And make it happen. In Spain I have many more resources. The CAR is a luxury. We have incredible professionals, a great pool and a team. Now we have to join two things: conditions and work well.

-Is the vertigo in your position?

-Yes, you begin to climb, everything moves and you say: ‘Ay’. But then you know that brave is not the one who is not afraid but the one that still with fear continues.

-To get everything inside the pool, have you given unlimited credit outside it?

-In the beginning I noticed that thanks to the fact that I had been a very good swimmer, they respected me, but there is also the topic that people who have been a very good athlete do not know how to be a good coach. Guardiola or Steve Kerr are two great examples of great players who have been good coaches, so I noticed them two and said: ‘If they can, I can too.’

-What is that Andrea swimmer?

-The passion for sport and how I want them to treat me. I will treat athletes as I would like to be treated.

-Sustuye Mayuko Fujiki. What has been found and what will change?

-The Japanese culture is very different from the Spanish. Just as when I went to the United States I had to adapt to American culture and contribute the good of the Spanish, here I have seen is that there is a lot of self -criticism. I do not know if it comes from the old coach or is something innate of this specific generation. There was a lot of self -criticism and not enough union or collaboration for my liking. In the United States I worked hard to build trust and when you think you can, you can more. If you think you can’t, you’re getting barriers.

-What reception has been found? Did they look at her with admiration, suspicious?

-Very good. In fact, vertigo comes from there. I notice that I get to a place where it seems that it is ultrapoderosa, but I am human. I told them: ‘I also make mistakes and some of you will also hate me.’ I have the feeling that people expect a miracle of me and gives vertigo, but the pressure is a privilege and hug, it is an honor. I also tell you: ‘Someday I will fail and I will do something that you do not like, I will apologize, I will learn how you learn and I have no problem in teaching my vulnerability.’ I think the way to show more strength is when you don’t worry about losing any authority. Be completely transparent. It is what is helping me most to progress.

-Have you recovered that union that was missing when it retired?

-Even team is different and the new generations are different from the previous ones. What I know is that when I get to a team what I want is to unite it and make it stronger. I always want more, to be more proactive, more united, more collaborative. I dedicate myself a lot to work this.

-For your choreographies. How is that process?

-From small, my parents and my school valued that one defended their authenticity. They have never forced me not to get out of line. I have always liked to do new things, change the rules of the game for better. I never want to do something that is already done. I really like art in every way. It inspires me a lot, I am a person with emotions to the skin of leather and I want to live them. I don’t want to get bored.

-He has always been very vindictive as a swimmer. Will we see that rebellion now too?

-There are times that I create new rules. I love that double edge because it is the one that makes sport grow. When there is a legal vacuum in this regard, it is good to expose it because you push a barrier further and new things happen.

-The Victor Cano (he is his partner) and his importance as responsible for acrobatics. Can you disconnect at home?

-Our children sometimes complain (laughs). We are fortunate to understand and balance very well because I really like the risk and for security and have everything under control. If it were only mine we would fall and if it were only yours we would not progress. It is the perfect risk union under control.

-You are not in favor of training eight hours. Doesn’t that go against the culture of effort?

-No. I prefer efficient effort. Training more and more is not intelligent because you often repeat the error. When you always fail in the same you have to look for different solutions. It is seen in the new generations. When we were little we saw the Sunday movie in the afternoon whatever it was. Now they see ‘YouTube’ two seconds, they don’t like and outside. They cannot endure concentrated twelve hours a day. I have to make it enjoyable, very proactive.

-Are men prepared to compete in a while within the teams, traditionally female?

-He now not. I am causing this change as fast as I can with Dennis González and Jordi Cáceres. I want to be the first team that has the boys at the same level as the girls.

-And why does it happen, for quality or for the system?

-Because they have been training less time. It is already difficult to be a boy in our sport … and we have cared for them so much that they have trained less, less years, less hours … and, in addition, they give much more but their concentration lasts less. Then you have to train them differently. Until now we didn’t know how to train them.

-Would you be in favor of a minimal mandatory quota of boys in the team, even if you harm him?

-It is convenient and is good for sport. Sometimes if not forces a little things do not happen. Sometimes you have to help a little from the outside for people to break barriers.

-He was a pupil of Anna Tarrés. Is there anything from her in Andrea Fuentes?

-Yes of course. Of all my coaches I have gathered things. From Anna, the ‘there is nothing impossible’.

-What weighs more of her: what to do or what should not be done?

-To equal parts. I have many things about them, to maintain creativity in training, creative routines, to make possible everything impossible, but I also have everything that I did not want to happen from groups of groups. I have changed that to what I believe.

-He always said that I preferred to learn from the adversary, enjoy and make it good to the public to a medal. Is still thinking the same?

-It is valued for success, which is like the carrot that makes you move on. But I always tell them: «We do not talk about medals, but how to get to my maximum potential. That will lead me to the medals, but it is a consequence, not a goal ».

-Do you like them to call them sirens?

-It’s quite cheesy, but it’s also pretty. Call me siren that is mystical, a mythological being and that is always going well.