“work with passion and everything will come, soon or later”
Results: World Championships Silver Medallist 2019, Bronze 2018. European Championships Bronze 2018. Junior & U23 World Champion.
Kayak idol? Fran Llera. Last olympian from my hometown, I started kayaking because of his talks at school.
Favorite distance and training? 500m, my favourite trainings are about speed resistance (R4 / R5).
Favorite paddle and boat? My fav paddle is Braça 1 and my fav boat is Nelo 7.
Motivation song? Forever (Martin Garrix) also You’ll never walk alone (Gerry and the pacemakers) gives me goosebumps.
Any advice for beginners? Just enjoy every second you are sitting on the boat. Don’t think too much about improving or making the best times, just work with passion and everything will come, soon or later.
Apart from physical training, do you have mental training scheduled in your routine? I used to work with psychologists back in the day, but since a couple of years I don’t work with them.
How do you manage to keep calm before and during a competition? I don’t think too much about the competition itself, when I’m in a competition week. I waste time with my mates, watch netflix or even study. Disconnecting is important and it helps with my nerves. Anyway, and fortunately, I don’t get very nervous before competitions.
What is a normal day like as a professional paddler? I usually wake up early. I live in Madrid, and we have a 1-hour travel before we arrive in the river we train. Most of the days we train 2 times (water) and 1 time (gym) in a normal day. Our first session contains the basic training (the longest), after that we have lunch and over 2 hour rest (when I usually study). Then we have the second session (more specific one) and we go back to Madrid, where we finish the day in the gym.
What do you think is the key to be a top athlete? As I said before, working with passion is key in every athlete’s journey to top. Constancy, know how to make good decisions… and of course hard work. Hard work beats any talent.
What do you think is your best paddling quality and what you’d like to improve? Although I can’t consider myself a 200m paddler, I think one of my best qualities is my first meters. I have always been a fast starter. I want to improve my endurance and my self confidence in the last meters, especially in the 1k.
How do you train self confidence? I said before that self confidence is one of my qualities I would like to improve.
What are your goals for this 2021 season? 2021 is a very exciting year for me. Olympic games are behind the door and my dream for me is being there, representing my country. Of course there are fewer chances than I would like but like someone said: ‘1% chances, 99% faith’.