Retiring at 20, the epidemic that plagues sport: "I thought: Either I do something or kill myself"
Nuria Caballero is 22 years old and is no longer. She is no longer a high jumper, she is no longer a Barcelona athlete, she is no longer an elite athlete. It was until October and it was going to be for a long time, but it is no longer. «When I was little I wanted to be Ruth Beitia. He was always my idol, and I look a lot alike physically. At 11 years old I was already 1.80 meters tall. I love athletics, there is nothing in the world I like more, but I have left it. This year I entered the Sant Cugat High Performance Center, in the summer I was third in Spain, a lot of expectations were placed on me and, honestly, I handled it very badly. I felt a lot of pressure, I stopped enjoying myself and I started to suffer from anxiety. The body asked me to stop. There were too many things to digest,” says Caballero, who is now. She is a Nursing student at the Rovira i Virgili University, she is a fan of climbing – “I am practicing other sports, which I have never done before” – and she is a paradigmatic case.
Caballero exemplifies an epidemic that devastates the sport: early withdrawals. There are many, many who remain in the valley that separates teenagers from adults, amateurs from professionals, unknowns from the famous.
In a study carried out among 442 Spanish athletes by psychologists from the Catholic University of Murcia (UCAM), the University of Murcia and the University of Santiago, 4% confessed to being burned out, exhausted, mentally exhausted and a further 15% admitted to being at high risk. of suffering from the same illness, the so-called burnout. Other countries show similar percentages: the problem is global. The cases of the gymnast Simone Biles or the tennis player Ashleigh Barty brought mental health care to the covers, but it stayed there, on the covers. Every day the list of young people retired without so much as a brief grows.
«It is becoming more common, much more than people think. There are teenagers who already feel pressure and think about quitting.. I give a recent example in the consultation: a 14-year-old girl, successful in a minority sport such as taekwondo, who felt that she could not disappoint her coach, that her club depended on her.. In today's sport we run too much and that is dangerous. In the training categories there is too much focus on victory, on winning a certain championship, and that generates discomfort,” analyzes Jesús Portillo, from Sports Psychologists, professor at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) and psychologist of the Spanish national team. field hockey, among others. «Many times athletes are already burned out, but they continue to win due to talent, conditions or previous training. “This way they hold on until they can't take it anymore,” adds the expert and that is precisely the story of former snowboarder Ana Amor.
«I locked myself at home for a month»
Because Ana Amor was “no longer well” and was also going to qualify for the 2014 Sochi Olympic Games, she was one of the 20 best in the world and shared concentrations with the current Olympic medalist Regino Hernández and the current world champion Lucas Eguibar. A couple of years later, when she was only 23, she, the best Spaniard in the history of snowboard cross, hung up her board. «Before qualification for the Sochi Games began my father died. I was very young, no one talked to me, there was no psychologist in the Federation and I managed it as best I could.. Despite this, I achieved good results and was going to get the place, but there was a moment when everything came crashing down on me.. I was in competition and my mind disconnected. One day, after a jump, I had to absorb the impact and instead I jumped. A very big nonsense. I was seriously injured. Because of that I didn't go to the Games, I locked myself at home for a month so I wouldn't see anything and then it wasn't the same.. I went back to competing as if nothing was happening, but I got injured again. There I already thought: either I do something or you kill me. And I left it,” says Amor, who later started studying Journalism and today wants to write, narrate, explain stories…. about snowboarding.
Ana Amor poses for EL MUNDO Araba
«I spent three years without touching the snow and I live in the Pyrenees. I disconnected from everything, I had a bad time. Now I see it with perspective. Last year I even competed again.. For pleasure, without pressure. I feel the pain, the frustration, the failure of leaving it, but I have enjoyed it again,” he concludes and underlines a note for the solution: “My coach and the Federation lacked tact.”
From the bench
The feared environment. In Spain, federated soccer competitions begin at the age of five; basketball ones, at six; the handball ones, at seven; and roller hockey, for example, at eight; and there are technicians, clubs and institutions that live off their results. The coach of a champion team in Benjamins will be promoted, a club with promise in youth will attract more boys and girls, there will be celebration if Madrid beats Catalonia or Asturias in a regional under-12 championship.
«Many coaches seek the success of their pupils in lower categories because this is how their work is recognized.. It's understandable, but it's hasty. I have also been young and unconscious, but we must differentiate the phases. In the learning phase the important thing is not to win, even if you win. This year Luana Marton was proclaimed world champion at the age of 17 and my job was to manage it, calm her down, keep her learning.. Don't let him get overwhelmed. Mental health is not important, it is the most important thing. If a person is not happy, is burned out and does not want to train, it is impossible for them to reach the elite,” proclaims Jesús Ramal, from the Hankuk gym, coach of the Olympic taekwondo runner-up Adriana Cerezo – who has just turned 20 – and promises like Marton herself, a candidate for everything in the next Paris 2024 Games. “In the end for these things, in the environment, those who are really fundamental are fathers and mothers,” he concludes and there, the master wall.
The work of parents
André Agassi and his father Mike, who forced him to play tennis day and night. Max Verstappen and his father Jos, who abandoned him at a gas station due to a driving error. Terrible examples have drawn a caricature in the collective imagination, but normally fathers and mothers want the best for their sons and daughters.. And they don't have it easy. What to do before a competition? Is it better to ask how you are doing or avoid the topic? And then? Parenting is doubting all the time.
«Sometimes we have not been up to the task. We have always supported her, but we didn't know what to do, everything was too big for us. When she won the first World Cup I just thought: 'Oh, my God, now how do I help my girl?',” admits Toñi Moreno, the mother of Carolina Marín, who at 21 years old was already pointing to what she is: a legend of the badminton. «Any mother tries to do the best for her child. We have known athletes who have retired due to pressure from their family and it was without bad intentions.. Our idea has always been the same: let him know that we are. If you want to celebrate, we are there, if you want to let off steam, we are there, if you need space, we are there.. Giving him that support is our job so that he is happy, so that he does not stop enjoying himself, because that is what we come to in life,” adds Mavi López, mother of the current Olympic climbing champion, also twenty-year-old Alberto Ginés, and she is quite right.
Then, with everything, live
Julia Payola's biography confirms this. A photo of her as a child continues to accompany her name on Google Images. On the right, she, with the large champion trophy; On the left, Paula Badosa, with the little one as runner-up. How many under-10, under-12, under-14 or under-16 competitions did they compete in and how different were their paths in tennis?. At 24 years old, Badosa reached number two in the WTA ranking; At 24, Payola was already retired. His best position on the list had been number 427. Enough.
«There was a time when the results were no longer coming. It was life or death, I didn't enjoy the process and that didn't help me. I left him and went to finish my ADE degree in England, I was very burned out.. And do you know what happened? That I ended up returning and doing sports management internships precisely in a tennis company.. I don't play, but in sports there are many more things to do. Now I think that my career didn't get any better because I didn't have to get any better. It was a beautiful stage, but you have to turn the page and be happy,” concludes Payola, like so many, with elite sport now just another memory.