“Where is Ane?”, “Have you already talked about Ane?” Journalists asked him, even those who went to San Sebastián to interview the girl, so great was the feeling she caused in the 2016 Rio Games,
When Maialen Chourraut’s daughter was the protagonist of gold celebration.
But the canoeing did not want this time, already with eight years, she had as much attention on her and much less that bothered her.
Therefore, and for the restrictions on the coronavirus, of course, he did not travel with her as always and stayed in Spain with Xabi’s sister Etxaniz, her husband and coach of her, that is, with her aunt.
Although the process to get everyone to be well from a distance, as well as to return with an Olympic silver, it needed some adaptation. “We arrived here to Tokyo on day 9, we are going to turn three weeks, and honestly it was a topic that worried us a lot. Until this year we had led Ane all the competitions, we had traveled throughout Europe, I had always slept with us, and Now suddenly, three weeks … We tried everything, but with the rules of the government of Japan it was impossible. So we decided to train it, as with everything. In the first test of the World Cup, we had in Prague, Ane He stayed with my sister and his children, with his cousins. He gave us a hurry, but they were going to be only two days. And when we came back she was very happy, happy, she wanted to stay longer. That was a relief. Maiaen did not know if, Far from Ane, he would be quiet enough to compete and he has been, he has been, “Etxaniz commented on the girl who took the first dedication of the new Olympic Subcampeona.
Just at the end of his performance on the Kasai canal, kisses in the air for her, and when going down the podium, with a teddy of the mascot of these games, Miraitowa, a futuristic cat, launched a message to the cameras: “Ane, Zurezako
“That is,” Ane, for you “.
According to Etxaniz, the whole family has turned on Ane, in which she was happy, that she did not feel longing, and every day in Japan maintains a tradition.
As soon as the little one rises, over 08:00 hours in Spain, over 15.00 hours in Japan, the family meets with a video call to encourage every day.
From there, nothing can go wrong.
“It’s hard to be so far away, but when we talk we calmed down a lot, she knows what we have gone along the way and she also puts a lot of effort so that her mother is well, so that her mother fulfills her dreams. The truth is that the only thing
I’m looking forward to is coming home and seeing my little girl, “Chourraut recognized with silver and hanging on his neck after a familiar change of those who always cost.
After the death of Chourraut’s father in 2019, both the canoeist and his coach and husband, Etxaniz agreed on the need to return home, to San Sebastián and in the suitability of doing so just after the Tokyo Games, that is,
the last summer.
Before even that they became a professional and personal couple both had lived in the Seu D’Urgell, a step away from Andorra, on a floor that was two minutes from the Olympic channel, but it was time to return.
And, despite the pandemic, they returned.
Just after the end of the most severe confinement in Spain, a few days after the movements between communities were authorized, they left the Basque Country and adapted all their routines.
To prepare next to the house, to have to do two hours by car to get to the Pau channel, to pale on the River Seger to do it at the Bidasoa and the Uremea, where they have even placed doors.
“All the removals have theirone, but the truth is that back home we are very happy. To Maialen has come very well to find the course towards these games and also and I have also come very well, very well, to be
Closer to the family, “says Etxaniz before making a video call of the celebration: on the other side, Ane, this time, away from the focus of the media.
