They put the medals on the table with determination. They boast especially of the most recent one, the gold medal at Catalan Championship of show groups, in which the choreography let me live he climbed the CPA Girona of Nuri Soler i Delia Valentine to the pleasure of feeling in the clouds. “There are many hours of training to get here”, explains Soler. Patricia Liberal i Mascaró Sea, two of the twenty-four skaters on the team, nod their heads in silence. “They must be identical in the movements and this is achieved with repetition after repetition. With concentration and effort. Because first you have to create the show, but then you have to work to make it shine».
This job is not easy. Because each skater lives and manages a shared path differently. “When I have a bad day, training is the moment to leave everything behind; knowing that, as a person who is part of a team, you have to give the best you have. If I can’t add that day, at least I don’t have to subtract. This is the hardest thing for me, because I can’t damage the dressing room or be distracted. The most recommended option is to put on the skates and if I have to cry, do it when everything is over”, says Mascaró. “It’s a space to be alone with yourself, without thinking about anything else”, describes Liberal. The CPA Girona is made up of 135 female skaters, from the smallest, who work individually, to the largest. “Yes, we are aware that we are a mirror for the base of the club and for other skaters. Many people dream to get to where we are, we are lucky to be where we are. What we intend is to show the cohesion of a team that defends a behavior and teach that you can fight and dream”, he adds. It is clear that it is possible, because there is still hope.
Championship of Spain
On Sunday the Championship of Spainin which the CPA Girona will see them again with the CPA Olot, in a fierce duel that has been going on for a long time and that, inevitably, makes both teams better and allows Girona skating to continue to shine all over the planet. “We are going there with great enthusiasm, but not finishing first is not a failure. The goal is to qualify for the European Championship and of Dish, and this is achieved by remaining in the first two places”, admits Soler, who does not forget the time that CPA Girona had not managed to win: “We had not won since 2019, but we do not take it as a bad experience. Year after year we get international medals and not winning does not make us feel inferior or failures. We feel wonderful, we have to appreciate that we are getting great things and not just value it when we are first». The line that separates victory from defeat is very thin. That’s why judging work by results leads to wrong conclusions. “You always aspire to be on top of everything, but you never know if you’ll win because ours is a sport in which you play everything in five minutes and many times it’s not up to us”, says Liberal.
To achieve perfect synchronization there can be no gaps. To manage this, Soler indicates that “we can’t provide individual care as they would need. They execute and both I and Délia say the error of one or the other. And at that time you cannot say twenty-three very well, nor congratulate twenty-three. Let’s go straight to the error because it’s the most effective way to not waste time and correct what it touches. As a coach, I lack this close contact”, she assures and explains that “praise strengthens self-esteem and more so in a sport as demanding as this. Many times I have to make decisions that I don’t like, like telling a girl she won’t skate. And it’s hard to separate the emotional part from the sporting part, but it’s part of my job. And that will make them brave, because they are not in a bubble. I always say they will make it, in life, because they sacrifice. They are never missing, they come with a fever. They have values that many do not have». Perseverance is a gift.
Facilities and financial support
The lack of resources is the main headache we have to live with. “Not having a lot of facilities available or the ones we need, is a handicap and a problem that gets more serious every year. They have to be 100% available all weekend, because we depend on the hockey games to find out if we can extend practice by an hour. It ends up burning and wearing out, and causes the show to be on a constant tightrope. We understand that Girona has the facilities it has, but we think that as a capital city we have more difficulties than other people. There is a predisposition, but one more step should be taken: either by making an agreement with nearby pavilions or by creating facilities”, says the CPA Girona coach. At the same height is the lack of financial support. “They are skaters who have to work to pay not only the fee but the trips to compete. And that’s a lot of money. And there comes a time when families don’t want to, it’s that they can’t.”
“It’s very fulfilling to go out on the track and prove to yourself that everything went the way you wanted,” analyzes Liberal. “You have to weigh everything,” reasons Mascaró, who continues: “I tell myself, OK, I’ll train, but that means I’ll have to study more hours or ask for a party at work. People don’t understand and ask us why we do it. These are things that if you don’t carry them in your blood, you don’t live them, because you can say you wouldn’t but I do, because this is my way of living. Without skating I would be left with a void that other people wouldn’t have”, he concludes, with sincerity.
Six Girona representatives in the Spanish championship
This weekend the Championship of Spain al Sports Palace of the Vall d’Hebron with an extensive Girona representation. In the modality of small groups, which will take place on Saturday from 6 p.m., they will participate GEiEGhe PA Figueres and the CPA Olot. On the other hand, for large groups you will have to wait until Sunday from 4 p.m.: the PA Macanethe CP Celràthe CPA Olot and the CPA Girona they will measure their strength in the third chapter of the course, after the territorial and the Catalan championship.