Fermín Cacho: “The silver from Atlanta’96 gave more value to the gold from Barcelona’92”

Former Spanish athlete Fermín Cacho confessed that the silver medal he won in the 1,500 meters at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games gave “even more value” to the Barcelona ’92 gold, and he was optimistic about the European Championships in Birmingham, because Spain has a “very good team.”

“Both Barcelona’92 and Atlanta’96 are very important races for me. The silver medal in Atlanta was even more valuable to the gold achieved in Barcelona because I went to defend the title and managed to be Olympic runner-up. I remember it as if I were running right now,” said Fermín Cacho in an interview with Europa Press after the tribute to the Olympic athletes of Atlanta’96 organized by the Spanish Olympic Committee (COE).

Four years earlier, Cacho competed in the Barcelona Olympic Games, in which he won gold in the ‘milqui’, in an event that was a turning point in national sport, due to the record of 22 medals won by the Spanish delegation.

However, the former athlete did not feel pressure to defend the Olympic crown, because that race belonged to “history.” “I began to train and focus not only on the Atlanta games, but also on the World and European Championships. You have to go year after year watching the competitions that exist and then prepare for the Games. So, I arrived very well in Atlanta and was able to defend at least the Barcelona medal,” he explained.

“There was a problem in the last 400 meters of the last lap when the Moroccan middle distance runner Hicham El Guerrouj fell and I had to jump over him. This made it difficult to catch the race leader Nourredine Morceli. That was the only thing, but otherwise it was something magnificent,” he recalled.

The one from Soria thanked the tribute at the COE, in a reunion to “be happy and joyful.” “You go to a place where you see people you haven’t seen in a long time, you also realize how we have changed and how time passes,” he said.

Looking ahead to the European Championships in Birmingham that will be held this August, the former runner was optimistic about “the successes” that the Spaniards have achieved in the Indoor World Championships in March, with two bronzes, two silvers and Mariano García’s gold. “I hope we get medals because we have a very good team even in events that a few years ago it was practically impossible to think that we could fight for medals, so that is magnificent,” he concluded.