There were still three months left for Naia Laso to be born, on November 19, 2008 in Bermeo (Bizkaia), when Rafa Nadal took the gold at the Beijing Games that summer, Saúl Craviotto climbed to the top of the podium in K2 500 and Rudy Fernández left a poster for the memory with his dunk against Dwight Howard in the Olympic basketball final against the United States. And yet, despite that generation gap, the skater The 15-year-old will be competing alongside the three legends at the Paris Games, where she will be the youngest athlete among the 382 athletes in the Spanish delegation. “It’s incredible,” Naia told EL PAÍS from California, where she is still preparing for the competition.
The record of precocity is driven by a discipline, the skatewhich debuted in Tokyo and is a children’s sport. Next on the list of benjamins is her teammate Natalia Muñoz, just a few days older than her (she was born on September 26), and if she managed to get on the podium Laso would become the youngest Spanish medalist in history in an Olympic individual event. Already in the last Games the gold in the exercise of street (like skating on the street, between railings and boxes) was celebrated by the Japanese Momiji Nishiya at only 13 years old, and the silver in park (which is competed on ramps and pools) went to her compatriot Kokona Hiraki, who is one year younger. The youngest Spanish athlete to participate in the Olympic Games was swimmer Antonia Real, who was 12 years, 10 months and six days old when she jumped into the pool in Montreal 76.
All of Naia Laso’s shyness when talking, when talking about her short life, turns into self-confidence and daring on the skate. She started at the age of seven, imitating her brother’s games in a park, at 12 she was already champion of Spain and at 14, fifth in her first World Championship. At 15 she will be in Paris after a good scare. skater She rose to fifth in the rankings after winning a world circuit event in Dubai in March, but broke her left collarbone when she collided with another player. rider in a pre-Olympic training session in Shanghai in May. At that event and at the next qualifying stop, in Budapest in June, Laso barely went out to jump in order to score the minimum points and thus secure his ticket to the Games.
The injury is practically healed, although the preparation has been delayed compared to the rest of the Spanish team: Naia Laso, Julia Benedetti, Danny León and Alain Kortabitarte compete in parkand Natalia Muñoz in streetThe group, coached by Alain Goikoetxea, spent 12 days in California, where there are more and better facilities, and Laso has extended his stay there by a week to recover some of the lost ground.
“I like the feeling of freedom when skating, skating with my friends and trying a trick until we all succeed. For me it is like a way of expressing myself,” says the young woman, who as a child also practiced surfing and skiing, and who has just finished fourth year of compulsory secondary education and will start high school. That will be after the Paris Games, where she hopes to surprise everyone. skatewhich made its Olympic debut in Tokyo (Julia Benedetti and Danny León were already there), has been growing in Spain and has even created a national circuit, the Iberdrola Skate Series, to promote its practice. It is the birthplace of future Olympic children such as Naia Laso.
