Talento a bordo Team

A new member has joined the Iberia Talento a bordo Team: Marcus Cooper. This canoeist, who won a gold in Rio and silver in Tokyo, is a firm favourite to be the flag bearer of the Spanish delegation at the Paris Games. Do you want to get to know him?

In her dreams, canoeist Antía Jácome can see herself at the Paris Games with a medal (or two!) around her neck. A dream that, after winning three silvers at the last World Championships, seems destined to come true.

Since she was little, Silvia Mas learnt how to read the wind. The wind sometimes blows in your favour and other times against you, but it always brings good tidings. This is what one of the most award-winning yachtswomen in Spanish sailing believes.

After the Tokyo Games, Ray Zapata considered quitting. Now, less than a year away from the Paris Games, the only thing on this Dominican-Spaniard gymnast’s mind is flying high again, why not?

This completely blind Paralympic athlete dreams of winning his third Paralympic gold medal in Paris and, to make that dream come true, he admits that mental health is just as important as physical health, if not more so. A graduate in Psychology, he defends the value of this science in sport.

Race walking, a quintessential discipline in athletics —in the Games since 1908— is in danger. One of the most talented race walkers in Spain, Diego Gª Carrera, admits as much. But all is not lost.

When Rodrigo Conde, a rower, gave up on the Games, it changed his life. For good. Now, after leaving behind the lightweight category, which forced him to take his body to the limit, he dreams of stepping on the podium in Paris.

The gold Alberto Ginés won at the Tokyo Games turned him into a star overnight. When this climber stepped out of the spotlight, he returned to his training sessions with one main goal: to get motivated again.

This athlete knows exactly what overcoming obstacles is like, and this judoka is used to falling down and getting back up again. Their respective sports have built their characters and turned them into the people they are today.

Paralympic swimmer Sarai Gascón has added four more medals —one gold and three bronze— (and counting) to her extensive collection during the recent World Championships held in Manchester. Her next goal? Winning the gold in Paris.

Both Gerard Descarrega and Rodrigo Conde are among the elite of their respective sports: para-athletics and rowing. But neither of them competes alone, this athlete runs alongside his sighted guide and this rower, alongside his teammate.

A whirlwind. This is the natural phenomenon Adriana Cerezo is most like both on and off the tatami. And that strength is what carries this taekwondo athlete through the air at each championship and during each training session.

They don’t practice the same sport, one does swimming and the other canoeing, they were born seven years and more than one thousand kilometres apart, but Sarai Gascón and Antía Jácome have one thing in common: their love for water.

Dreams sometimes await us thousands of miles away. Leaving his roots behind, Hugo González de Oliveira flew to the United States to make his dream come true: becoming one of the best swimmers in the world.

Since last December, a severe injury has kept Niko Shera off the tatami. Any other judoka hoping to win a medal at the Paris Games would be anxious, but he keeps calm and collected, and only thinks about winning gold.

Just a few days before the Tokyo Games, Irene Sánchez-Escribano felt her left foot crack. Tests confirmed the worse-case scenario: a broken second metatarsal bone. A severe blow. This summer, she’s working slow and steady towards Paris.

Alberto Ginés and Ray Zapata are quite different, but they have several things in common: their passion for their respective sports, an unquenchable competitiveness, winning medals in Tokyo, and chemistry, lots of chemistry!

To understand their passion for taekwondo and swimming, we must look back, specifically at a grandfather who watched martial arts films with his granddaughter, and to a father who taught his son to swim at the tender age of one.

Yachtswoman Silvia Mas and walker Diego Gª Carrera, both members of the Iberia Talento a bordo Team, show us what their day-to-day is like preparing for the next Games and come together to share confidences.

Iberia proves its commitment to Spanish sports talent by supporting a group of 13 athletes on their path towards the Paris Games.