The maxim of falling a hundred times and getting up a hundred and one can be applied perfectly to Marcos Ruiz, gold in the snatch and total Olympic bronze in the World Weightlifting Championships held in Bahrain. Because the Catalan, 28 years old, misses out on this brilliant success after a year of blackout due to a knee injury that cost him not to participate in the Paris 2024 Games. In this already historic world championship for the one from Molins de Rei Since he is the first Spanish male hatera to climb to the top of the podium, Ruiz lifted 183 kilos in the snatch, placed fourth in two times with 212 kilos and reached the 395 points that allowed him win bronze in the Olympic total. He shared the podium with the Kazakh Artyom Antropov and the Qatari Meso Hassouna. For now, the greatest success of a career that has been consolidating in different territories. From the Molins de Rei club where he started as a child and where David Soria discovered his potential at the age of eleven; to the CAR of Sant Cugat, where he spent four years and six more in Madrid. A progression that bore fruit in the junior category, with a world silver and a European under-23 gold; and which later promoted him to the Olympic diploma at the Tokyo 2020 Games (eighth). However, Ruiz wanted a change of scenery after the Olympic event and returned home, to the club in his city where he continued training with Soria and where he began to be the one who, in addition to continuing to lift weights and dreams, dedicated himself to searching and train new talents. Those who already want to be like him, the best Spanish male weightlifter in history. For two seasons he has been training at the CAR in León. But he has also gone through falls, and big ones, both physical and emotional. In May 2018 he was suspended for testing positive for testosterone in a test carried out on November 18, 2017 at the Anaheim World Cup camp. «The IWF reports that Marcos Ruiz’s sample has shown an adverse analytical result for testosterone (Anabolic Agents S1.1). As a result, the athlete has been provisionally suspended in view of a possible anti-doping rule violation. In any case where it is determined that the athlete did not commit an anti-doping rule violation, the relevant decision will also be published. The IWF will not make any further comments on the case until it is closed,” indicated the message from the International Weightlifting Federation. However, in the test carried out before the training camp, on November 9, and the one carried out before the competition (he came eighth), on December 3, he tested negative. Therefore, after an investigation and the request for test B, no evidence was found against him and that positive was annulled two months later. But it left its mark on the athlete, who was stripped of his scholarship and separated during the investigation time. He channeled all that anger at not being able to defend himself against what he considered an injustice in training and after the acquittal he returned with all his strength to the sport. In 2021, European bronze in two times; in 2022, one silver and two bronzes at the European Championships in Tirana; a gold and a silver in the Mediterranean Games, and a silver in snatch at the World Cup in Bogotá. A record that continued a golden era of this sport for Spain, with Lydia Valentín as the spearhead. The Leonese stood out in world championships, with five golds, two silvers and five bronzes; and also in the Olympic Games, with the gold in London 2012, the silver in Beijing 2008 and the bronze in Rio 2016. Josué Brachi also added rewards to the national showcase with a world bronze in 2018. Before them, Sandra Gómez also shone, with six world medals in 1987 and 1988 (two silver and four bronze); María Dolores Martínez (silver and bronze); Mónica Carrió (silver and bronze), Lorenzo Carrió (bronze) and Gema Peris (bronze). But in the midst of takeoff, the black side of the sport arrived: injuries. A 70% rupture of the quadriceps tendon in his right knee forced him to be stopped for longer than his career required, as he even had to undergo surgery in July 2023. The recovery, arduous and complicated, also meant a mental setback. . “There were moments when I thought I would never be able to compete again and I would have to change my activity,” he acknowledged in those moments in an interview with EFE. The process was, however, slow but sure. With that thorn of not being able to qualify for the Paris 2024 Games, but forcibly removed with this gold and this bronze with which Ruiz heads towards his next dream, Los Angeles 2028, with all the enthusiasm in the world and backed for this success in Bahrain.
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