Ona Carbonell gave an interview to El Hormiguero on Monday, May 29. The athlete, who announced her withdrawal on May 19, revealed the reason behind this decision.
“The truth is that the illusion and passion were not the same as before and when I was little I always said ‘either I’ll give it up because of the cold or I’ll give it up because I no longer have that great motivation’. In the end I think that, when you are looking for the Excellence, or you go a thousand by thousand, or it’s not fair for the team or for me. There came a point that I wanted to do things out of the water more than in it,” he said.
“I hadn’t thought about the cold. How many hours were you in the pool?” Pablo Motos asked. “The cold is terrifying. At best, six in the morning and four in the afternoon each day. After an hour, an hour and a half, of being in constant humidity, the body temperature drops sharply, even if you are in a jacuzzi, you would end up passing cold. Every day, six days a week, 600 hours like that, it’s pretty tough,” he admitted.
“I feel very lucky and grateful because I have been able to decide that up to here. I think it is just as important to know when you start something as when you finish it. It is true that in sport sometimes circumstances such as injuries occur, you no longer see yourself at level. I no longer saw myself at the level of my best moments, but I could. On a physical level I was fine. I think it was something more emotional, wanting, to say ‘spend 10 hours a day here, or are you very motivated and you vibrate from the inside every second of your day to day or it’s almost impossible’. I already had my head and my heart on other things”, he acknowledged.
The synchronized swimming swimmer also wanted to address the athletes and give them advice when facing their withdrawal. “Many former athletes have told me and it has gone well for me: work towards the end of your career when you are active. This helps. That is, prepare for the end when you are still competing,” she said.
Motos wanted to know how he had prepared. “Talking with psychologists, preparing for the day after. If I don’t have anything, then studying something. I don’t know, thinking about it, not suddenly getting caught like that,” he said. “It is true that it is cool to prepare, my parents always told me so and I tried to learn from other areas: cooking, literature… Do other things, because in the end the day after is a little easier, although it is difficult,” he said. .
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