Alberto Ginés: "I'm the same as always, I've won a competition and that's it"

Climbing

The first Olympic climbing champion reviews in MARCA everything that has happened to him in these almost two months since he touched the sky at the Tokyo Games

Alberto Ginés gradually assimilates what it means to be an Olympic champion. In the last month and a half he has experienced situations that he did not even imagine. It is difficult for him to accept this new reality. He has entered, on his own merits, in that circle of athletes who arouse curiosity and admiration in equal parts.

Did you even imagine what is behind winning a medal in an Olympic Games?

I knew that the Games is the most important sporting competition, but I never imagined the repercussion it could have have a gold I get along quite well, although there are things that surprise or shock me.

Like what?

For example, having dinner with the Japanese ambassador, seeing Pedro Sánchez for two weeks in a row in two acts, they are things that I did not expect to happen to me

P. We are going to review some of those things that have happened to him in this time since gold. For example, did you think your grandmother was going to get a tattoo with you?

I was going to get it tattooed anyhow since I qualified for the Games. My grandmother told me that she would do it to him if I got a medal. Since I didn't expect to win, I didn't think about it anymore. But the medal arrived and the truth is that I did not expect my grandmother in her seventies to get a tattoo. My mother told her how she was going to do it at that age. And she answered that for that very reason, because she was already an age and she didn't care. And there you see her now showing off her tattoo everywhere.

What was that moment like when the Prime Minister gave you a fist bump at an event in Extremadura?

When they invited me I thought it was a reception for athletes. I get there and I see gentlemen in suits, the youngest would be 50 years old and I asked myself: "what am I doing here?" I took it as naturally as possible.

He goes to Italy and is invited to a restaurant for champagne

He was with some friends on his way to Austria. We stopped in a town with a long tradition in climbing and we went to a restaurant and they recognized me as the winner of the Games. They didn't have a table, but they got one for us. They brought us champagne, they invited us to shots... I couldn't believe it.

Olympic gold forced him to buy and put on a suit for the first time.

I'm not one to go to many weddings, and I usually go as comfortable as possible. And when they told me that I had a Gala, well, I had to buy the suit. I sent the photo to my mother. I pay it, I leave the store. So, my mother calls me and tells me that she had bought me the belt. And I had to go back to the store. Then if I had bought the shoes. I told him no, that he was wearing white sneakers. He also scolded me a bit for not buying me a tie. Then, I didn't know how to button my jacket properly, they told me on Twitter. After the Gala I said that I had already worn it once and that it would take time to get it out of the closet and a week later, I had dinner with the Japanese ambassador and it was time to put on the suit again.

His followers have skyrocketed on social media. It was winning the gold and making his account known that was not easy to identify. Was it difficult for you to assimilate that you were judged for what you had written on Twitter?

It seemed strange to me, that account was difficult to associate with me. I had my friends as followers. After the final, it went viral. The first thing I thought was to see what comes out of here because there were many things that I didn't even remember writing.

Do you stop writing something when you know that now it has more repercussions?

Not much, yes there are things that now I think twice before uploading them, but if I feel like writing them, I do. Everyone already knows how I think.

Why is it difficult for you to understand the relevance that you have acquired after the Olympic gold in relation to other medalists?

When Alberto Fernández and Fátima won gold, I went to their instagram and they had about 3,000 followers and the next day they were still the same. Two months after the Games, I have a lot of following on social networks and also in the media. At first I didn't understand why some medals do and others don't. I think it is largely because of what I write on the Twitter account, and also because of the climbing boom that was one of the most watched sports.

With the confinement due to the pandemic, he got hooked on playing in the computer. His is the League of Legends (LoL). Is your finger agility your secret weapon in the game?

I'm kind of mean and my friends pick on me. I keep playing because the free time I have I use the same way as before.

Have you already bought your cousins ​​the cell phone that you promised them if you won the gold?

It was the first thing you They told me when I won, as soon as I got to Cáceres I bought it for them.

He made that promise at Christmas. It was a difficult moment. He had to stop when he tore his meniscus and undergo surgery and then return home to confine himself when he contracted the coronavirus. Did you ever doubt going to the Olympic Games?

It was a hard time. The year 2020 was complicated. He had a very good peak of form and the confinement and quarantine arrived. It was three months without being able to do anything. I went back to training. I did a World Cup and it went badly.Then I tore my meniscus. Another break. When I returned to training, another three weeks confined by the coronavirus. I hadn't trained properly for almost a year and I had doubts as to whether I would perform well at the Games.

She spent three weeks in quarantine in her room at home. What happened? on his head all that time?

To fill that time in doing things so I don't go crazy.

How does the family influence there?

They didn't know that I was having a bad time, I keep my feelings to myself. They brought my food up, I returned the plate, they disinfected it, we talked on the phone and I didn't tell them much about what was going on in my head.

What motivated you for the Games?

The person who motivated the most for the Games was Adriana Cerezo when she came second. When I met her I told her and she replied that then she would also say that her medal was part of me. Seeing her win the silver, gave me back the illusion. I was in my room playing LOL and on call with a taekwondo guy friend of mine. I had seen a video of hers because she was very good. And we saw how she won and all the boom that she generated and I don't know, it's hard for me to explain, but she gave me back the illusion of four days to go to Tokyo.

Recently he wrote: "What a great demotivation to train in Spain." Why?

We don't have proper facilities. Then there are people who criticize us for complaining and tell me that with the money I have won from the medal I can pay for a climbing wall. I think I can also ask for it. We train in public climbing walls with people who have paid their entrance fee, who are starting to climb, who have the same rights as you and who complain because we spend a lot of time on the wall. The routes aren't difficult for people to get motivated and keep going, but they don't work for us to train. At the CAR in Sant Cugat I do little, some physical training and nothing more. In the end, all the boys in the team hope that the summer competitions will arrive so that we can go to Austria and train properly.

Have they promised you that they can build a climbing wall in conditions?

In theory yes. In Cáceres they are going to do a very good one, it will be good for me when I go down to see my family and be able to train in conditions that I cannot now. In the CAR of Sant Cugat there is also an idea of ​​making another one. We are not asking for something that costs a lot of money, but it does allow us to train properly.

Has the lack of that climbing wall led you to choose the boulder and difficulty modality for Paris and rule out speed?

Yeah, that's my idea. I am not a speed specialist, there are already in Spain. I have to go down a second and I have to invest a lot of time to get it. It will be more profitable for me to focus on the boulder, which is what I do best.

From training at home with Adam Ondra to not congratulating him on his gold, what happened to him?

I had to go fast for the podium and then we didn't see each other in the Villa. I think it must have been a big disappointment for him not to get a medal. I think that's it and that he has no problem with me. For me he is the best climber in history.

What does Alberto Ginés dream about now?

With focusing on the World Cups, since I haven't won any event. And in the long term qualify for Paris.

If you were given a choice and you could only save one of these two medals, which would you choose: the gold in Tokyo or the first one that you won at the age of six in a Cup in Extremadura

The gold from Tokyo for how it has changed my life

Was that gold worth it with all that has come after?

Is it worth the pity or not it will be something that perhaps will respond better in a few years, right now, yes. There are days when you don't feel like listening to people or paying attention to me, that you explode a bit, but I know that these are things that I have to put up with.

What do your usual friends say when they see you? now as an Olympic champion?

Many times they hesitate and sting me, they know that I am not very cool when they talk to me about this topic because in the end I am the same person as always, that I have won a competition and that's it .