Impossible not to remember the great Blanca Fernandez Ochoa collecting his bronze medal at Albertville now 30 years ago, seeing Queralt Castellet hanging his silver at the Beijing Olympics. She was only 2 years old, the rider from Sabadell when the missed skier from Cercedilla finally got even with that painful disappointment in Calgary 88.
Blanca and Queralt have made winter sports history in Spain. The two of them together Regino Hernandez, Javier Fernandez Y Paquito Fernandez Ochoa are the five Spanish athletes who have achieved an Olympic medal in a Winter Games.
a key family
As in the case of White, The family of Queralt It was key in his first steps on the snowboard, at the age of 6, although four years earlier he had already put on his ski boots due to his parents’ love of snow.
But there is something that unites white and Queralt, beyond the snow, beyond the sacrifice, dedication and effort that high competition demands, beyond life thousands of kilometers from the family.
It is their ability to overcome, the determination of both in the face of the difficult circumstances that life presented them with. In the case of White from a very young age, when as a girl she experienced the hardness and cold of a boarding school in the Arán Valley at the end of the 70s, where at only 11 years old she learned to skilfully descend the white slopes and at the same time to overcome loneliness and the distance from his family.
“You’ve always dreamed it, do it”
when in 2015 Queralt He suffered the hard loss of his partner and coach, Ben Jolly, promised to thank him for everything he had given him one day by achieving an Olympic medal. She went to Switzerland and tried to start over just when he was in the prime of his career.
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“You’ve always dreamed of it, do it”, is one of the motivational messages he often carries Queralt on his helmet. In the fifth JJOO of him he has done it, being the first silver medal of a Spanish athlete in a Winter Games.
Quer means rock, rock in Catalan. What a nice premonition. Enjoy your flight, high as your name, Queralt!