Nico Rodríguez had just licensed in dentistry in Austria and planned to spend several years saving there to return to Vigo and mount his own clinic when he received a call.
“I thought, and this one?”
This was Jordi Xammar, who offered him a completely different life project: he wanted him to be the new crew member at 470 and that together they arrived at Tokyo Games.
Rodríguez did not hesitate.
Although his characters are contrary, because Rodríguez is very quiet and Xammar is a whirlwind, he knew that as a couple they could get everything and so it was, and that’s right.
Since joining, back in 2016, they did not fall off the podium and, after successes in the last three world and in the last three Europeans, this Wednesday came the brightest medal: the Olympic bronze, the climax of its path.
Before the regatta, both walked through Enoshima Cabisbajos, living with the pressure.
The previous day, in a situation very similar to his, the two Spaniards had lost the medal at the ‘Medal Race’, the decisive regatta, the one who drew, and the precedents weighed them.
The tension on the south coast of Japan was high.
“We have slept well, we are fine,” Xammar reassured, usually a parlanchin as few, which this time before climbing the boat just wanted silence.
They left as third parties, with five points over two couples – the New Zealand Paul Snow-Hansen and Dan Willcox and the British Luke Patience and Chris Grube – and serene was an obligation.
