Gold comes from the sea. The treasure was hidden in the waters of Marseille. Sailors Diego Botín and Florian Trittel won first place in the 49er category on Friday, giving the Spanish team a place on the top of the podium for the first time at the Paris Games. And in style, winning the Medal Race, the decisive event, the tightest in the Olympic history of the category. Botín and Trittel showed an unbreakable mentality and personality to jump into the water for everything after yesterday’s heart-stopping day, when the race was suspended twice due to lack of wind at the moment when they were already close to glory and they had to wait for hours for an opportunity that has not come until today. The crew members have not only defended their lead but have flown in La Marina under a scorching sun to win the Medal Race, the regatta contested only by the 10 best boats and which counts double points, and to take home the gold without any dispute. They began sailing together in 49ers in this Olympic cycle and the invention has turned out to be a great success. European champions, on the podium of the last three World Championships (silver and two bronze) and now the Olympic sky. Sailing continues to swell the Spanish medal count, becoming the sport that has brought Spain the most medals (22) and the most golds (14) in the Olympic Games.
Botín, born in Madrid 30 years ago and raised in Cantabria, has sailing in his blood, a family of sailors and not just bankers, and relives a childhood at sea, from the age of seven at the High Performance Centre in Santander. His passion is sailing, not the studies of Business Administration and Management that he begins by tradition, and his heart is far from the shore. In his memory there is also the anger for that fourth place in Tokyo, after the ninth in Rio, so close to the podium with Iago López Marra that both were tied with the third and bronze medallists, the German boat, which surpasses them because in the decisive race they score five places ahead. That August 3, 2021 is still engraved in his memory, and the ghosts return when on Thursday, once again in the fight for Olympic glory, fate seems to test his capacity for resistance, his strength of spirit. It is a golden test.
Alongside Botín, his squire Florian Trittel, another son of the sea, born in Switzerland to German parents who moved to Barcelona when he was a child, and did so for their love of sailing. Also 30 years old, he contributed a sixth place in Tokyo, in Nacra 17 with Tara Pacheco, and with Botín he formed such a good partnership in such a short time that they were also champions last July, in San Francisco, of SailGP, the formula one of sailing, the flying catamarans. The Cantabrian is the driver, the leader, who replaced precisely Jordi Xammar, another of the great hopes in Paris, in 470 with Nora Brugman. Trittel is responsible for the wing in the sprinters’ tournament. From one boat they jump to another.
Marseille has been their second home in this Olympic cycle that they have shared, after separate adventures, and here they have learned to cope with a regatta course marked by the land that surrounds it, the whims of the wind coming in through the bay, the conditions that change every day, and a suffocating heat and humidity. And that is what they have made their strength, “consistent in all ranges of conditions”, a notable one almost always. They are stronger at the end than at the beginning, they say, and they feel comfortable in variety. Consistency has been their key despite not winning a regatta (three second places, a third, a fourth, a fifth and two sixths in the 12 qualifying rounds) before the Medal Race.
When push comes to shove, the couple display a steely mind to withstand the pressure of defending first place, coming close to gold, starting over, again on the brink of success, again at the start and until the next day. The same routine is repeated every morning: meditation to calm the mind and two ice baths to activate the body. Their secret is called Samatha, the name they have given to their boat, “the Buddhist practice of mental calm,” says Botín. It is the meditation and relaxation tactic that they have been using for three years, since they started sailing together, at Florian’s initiative. Once a week, they both log on to a course on-line The course is taught by a Buddhist family “who live on a mountain in Barcelona.” “It’s about sitting in a chair and learning to think, to relax. That’s very good for us in competition, it helps us.” They display this calm after the psychological torture of the two races suspended on Thursday, the dead hours at sea, waiting for the flags to move. After the warrior’s rest, they return this Friday with the same strength. They knew that the gold was hidden in the waters of Marseille.
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