In Spain, artistic swimming is once again very strong, as much as in the times of Anna Tarrés, Gemma Mengual, Andrea Fuentes and Ona Carbonell.
In fact, some of these figures – such as Gemma Mengual or Ona Carbonell – continue to involve the group, accompanying or advising them in important moments, such as these days in Doha: today the Swimming World Championships start.
The rebirth of the discipline is important because the Spanish artistic, a gale of successes and medals in the last twenty years, seemed to have stumbled at the Tokyo 2020 Games: there it had found itself far from the podium positions, not even a finalist.
The team was in a change of direction, they had justified it then, in a generational change that needed a cooking point. Time has given them reason. The work of Mayuko Fujiki and the progression of Iris Tió, Alisa Ozoghina, Dennis González and Fernando Díaz del Río (he has just announced his retirement) has reinvigorated the now exquisite group.
He collected seven podiums at the Fukuoka World Cup last summer, three golds.
And when a new World Cup starts, all eyes turn to Mayuko Fujiki’s people. There are options in all disciplines, starting with the single men’s coach, in whose team Dennis González debuts this Friday (10:50 a.m. Spanish time).
“The mentality of each athlete on the team is growing,” Fujiki said in a recent meeting with the press, at the CAR in Sant Cugat. Compared to the preparation for the Tokyo Olympic Qualifiers, although only three years have passed, things are very different. “We have grown a lot.”
“The absence of Russia in this World Cup (banned, like Belarus, as a consequence of the war in Ukraine) opens another door for us towards the Games – Fujiki said –, although it also opens it to some other team that can make the leap” .
The resurgence of the specialty, which seeks its Olympic places for the female duo and the team – challenges that are within its reach, but not in its power -, comforts swimming in our country, also blessed by water polo (male and female ), but not for swimming or diving, disciplines with a more discreet profile.
With Mireia Belmonte and Jessica Vall off, the weight of swimming hangs on the backs of Hugo González (24), a backstroker who had collected three podiums in the 2021 European Championship but has not taken flight since then. This time he appears registered in four tests.
