With the name Miguel Ángel López Nicolás, it was impossible not to think throughout 2016 that the Rio Games would be an avenue of gold and glory. The athlete from Llanos de Brujas, in Murcia, is then in the prime of his youth, ready for the culmination of a permanent and extraordinary progression. He is 28 years old. He was fifth at the London Games, second at the Moscow 2013 World Championships, first at the Zurich 2014 European Championships, world champion in Beijing 2015… The time for the triple crown arrived, something that no Spanish athlete had achieved before, nor since. “López arrived in Rio saying that he was going to eat up the Games, and the Games ate him up. He heard it said so much by the people around him, by his entourage, that he himself was convinced that it was going to be like that, and he didn’t mind saying it publicly,” recalls José Antonio Carrillo, his long-time coach. “He was so strong that we even doubled the bet, and we also decided to compete in the 50 kilometres. And it collapsed.”
On August 12th, it was the 20th. And even before he left, Carrillo was alarmed. The look, the gestures, the doubts. López, his and everyone else’s big favourite, disintegrated. In an exercise of will and sacrifice, he finished 11th. A week later, he abandoned without finishing the 50 kilometres. “How important the head is, and the environment, and the athlete, of course,” says Carrillo. “You have to abstract yourself from what an Olympic Village is, leave social networks… I remember in the 16th that Miguel Ángel López was always on his mobile phone answering calls, reading messages. We’re going to put a giant screen in such a place to see your races, and things like that. Even journalists were looking for me: ‘let us know when you’re going to break the hat’. And rivals came up to congratulate me before the race and, as we say in my town and I think they say in Spain, you can’t sell the bear’s skin before hunting it and that has been my maxim. But now I hope that a rejuvenated Michelangelo will really show what he is worth at the Games. Not for nothing has he just made it 20 in 1h 18m 33s.”
The experience in Rio opened a deep wound in the spirit of the Murcian walker, who had been disoriented and lost in his sporting career for several years. He found peace with Daniela and his son Daniel, who is around four years old, and triumphed again at the 2022 European Championships in Munich, winning the 35-kilometre race. “I have always had faith that I could achieve something big again and the 35-kilometre race gave me the opportunity. I have never lost hope, the desire to continue competing and training, although it has not been easy,” said the athlete at the time. “One more medal for the bag, a second European championship. And now, Paris, the Olympic medal, the one I am missing.”
Eight years after Rio, at exactly 36 and 35 days old, López will find the opportunity for Olympic redemption, this Wednesday at 7:00. It will not be in the 35 kilometres, a race that the IOC considers too long and boring for today’s youth, but in a new competition that combines the marathon distance, 42.195 kilometres, with a mixed relay in pairs that alternate, men and women, 10km or so each. “It will be complicated,” says López, who will be paired with the Catalan Cristina Montesinos, Valentí Massana’s pupil. “I will do 10 kilometres and I will pass the baton to Cristina and I will have 40 minutes or so to recover. It is something strange, that I have had to train for, because I had never competed with a recovery of that kind. So the second part will be the key, and also the technique.”
López Montesinos and Álvaro Martín-María Pérez, the individual medallists in the 20 kilometres, will be the two Spanish pairs at the Trocadéro. Paul McGrath (17th) and Laura García Caro (7th) will not repeat. “It was clear and discussed with the federation that Paul would not repeat,” says Alejandro Aragoneses, McGrath’s coach. “In fact, it is a good idea to have Miguel in this event, both for his fitness – we have shared training sessions and we have seen how he is – and for his experience and, above all, for his technique, he is a sure bet.”
Carrillo is congratulated by the judges because his athletes have perfect technique and hardly receive any warnings, and López’s is as immaculate as his hair and his part, drawn with a ruler and a ruler. The 10 kilometres are, however, a dangerous one. The pace is so fast – the men cover it in 38 minutes or so, at 3m 45s per kilometre – that it is difficult not to lift both feet at the same time less than the 50 thousandths that are considered the limit of the human eye. “And the warnings are not individual, but rather they add up. The third warning means three minutes of freezing, stopped on the sidelines, and each warning means another minute, until the seventh, which is the disqualification,” explains López. “But we have two very high-level couples and we have to take advantage.”
Eight years later, Miguel Ángel López is not coming to the Games to devour them, but to enjoy them. “I know how this works, these are my fourth Games. Getting there is a success. A medal is not easy, and my fellow countryman Alcaraz should value the silver medal, because it is very important,” reflects the race walker on the eve of his Olympic redemption. “Neither sport nor anyone else owes me a medal. This has to be fought for and worked for. I had a good opportunity in Rio and now I have another. If it comes, I will be super happy, and if not, I will be happy to have been fighting for it.”
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