Álvaro Martín, the withdrawal at the top of the champion without a gag: “I have gotten into all the messes”

– “Álvaro, in this interview we are not going to talk so much about sports.”

– “Better, better.”

To the appointment with EL MUNDO, a sunny autumn morning, Alvaro Martin He comes, like a good walker, walking from home. The announcement of his retirement just a few weeks after winning two Olympic medals in Paris, surprising for most but not for him, has been clouded by his controversy with Juan Carlos Rodríguez Ibarrathe former president of Extremadura who has falsely accused him of not paying taxes in his land. Although that, getting into puddles, is not something that is going to scare him. In fact, it’s one of the big reasons she quits. “I always try to defend what is fair. I have gotten into all the messes, but I sleep with the satisfaction of believing that I was doing the right thing. Being silent is not the solution,” he says about his vocation for activism, from the fight against doping to the demand for improvements in the retirement of athletes, among many other battles (also the survival of walking) with which in the future he intends to continue in a “professional manner.”

At 30 years old, he is both a retiree and a student. A former athlete and a ‘scholarship’ to whom the exclusive and prestigious Garrigues office He has selected to pursue a double master’s degree with which to expand his curriculum (he has a degree in Political Science from the Complutense University and a degree in Law from the UNED). An athletics legend and a budding lawyer who suddenly abandoned his spartan training routines, his life as a monk in Cieza, “four years with my partner from a distance”, for books, his little runs without a watch and his first steps with CrossFit , of which the wounds in the palm of his hand attest.

Throughout the almost two hours of meeting with Álvaro at the sports facilities of the Complutense University of Madrid, no one approaches him to ask for an autograph or a selfie. Not even two months ago he made headlines with his Olympic gold in the mixed relay alongside Maria Perezbut it goes unnoticed and he likes it. At one point in the interview he is asked how he would like to be remembered. “I don’t want them to remember my name, but rather my example. I want them to say ‘I already remember someone who achieved the most with sport and at the same time with studies.'”

That ‘one’ grew up in Llerena, a small town of 6,000 inhabitants, surrounded by the family’s academic example (“in my house I am the dumbest. My older sister is a chemical engineer, the youngest is an aeronautical engineer, my father is an agricultural engineer and as hobby He graduated in Psychology and my mother is a veterinarian…) and that he was never a nerd – “I passed high school poorly, a director told my mother that her son had to study… nothing” – he has been and wants to be a lot more. An athlete without a gag too, a lover of lost causes who is not afraid to even talk about politics.

Isn’t it a bit radical to retire at the best moment of your career?

It’s a little strange, yes. But it was clear to me a year ago, when they confirmed to me that I was selected to enter Garrigues. Due to the difficulty involved, with all the people who show up and the few places there are, and the dedication and exclusivity that it requires, I was not going to be able to train at a high level. And what sense does it make for me to enter a World Cup to, for example, finish in the top 10, knowing that I have the potential to win. I have taken this year to slowly say goodbye to athletics. And in silence, because only my coach and my partner knew. It has been like a mourning and the day I announced it I felt relief.

What did María Pérez tell you?

At first he didn’t take it well, he got angry. When I was communicating the decision at the Roman Theater in Mérida and she got emotional, it was very hard for me, because we have grown up together. We have experienced great things at the same time, the first time we were European champions, world champions, Olympic gold together. And also hard things, like fourth place in Tokyo. He’s going to get another very good dance partner, too, so he doesn’t have to worry.

What he experienced at the Paris Games will always remain with him.

It was very nice. With what I knew… After the bronze, I had my last career as a professional and it was a culmination. Just before leaving I approached my coach trying not to cry and said: ‘Jose [Antonio Carrillo]the last dance’. The man was a little taken aback. But that wasn’t going to confuse me, I was going to go to death. In my last segment of the relay, there is a moment where Paintedwho had been Olympic champion, leaves me behind. It was the last mile and a half of my sports career, I was dead, I told myself: ‘We have to give it our all.’ I passed him and was able to leave that advantage to María.

After Tokyo he came to think that perhaps his talent was not enough to win an Olympic medal.

I was returning on the plane, 14 hours, and I was thinking: ‘What if this was the train to win the Olympic medal, it has escaped me and it’s not going to come back?’ My anger is that I didn’t know what else I had to do to get better. But thanks to being in the hole, sunk, I have had the best years of my career. Being fourth is not a bad result, but that blow has brought me all the good things.

Why did you study Political Science?

I love political science. Not practicing as a politician, but studying everything that surrounds him. I had a great time. Podemos was emerging at the Somosaguas Faculty, many of my professors were within the party. Apart from the theory, we were seeing it in practice. You will like it or hate it, but we had something practical in front of us. It wasn’t reading you a tochaco. It was very exciting.

He has had offers to enter games.

I have been offered from all political spectrums to enter lists, for the Assembly of Extremadura. But it hasn’t caught my attention. Right now that door is very closed. In 15 years… I don’t know. I want to dedicate myself to law. But be careful, we all do politics. I do politics, I get involved in associations. The OSCED, for example, to defend the Extremaduran language.

Political polarization has touched you firsthand with Ibarra’s accusations.

Many people tell me, ‘you’re very brave, but maybe it’s not worth it’. Because I fear someone, am I not going to say what I think is fair? I don’t like tension, everything can become politicized. We saw it in the Eurocup with the national team. If he did something he was left-wing, if he did the other he was right-wing. But they are playing soccer! ¿Lamine Yamal Are you thinking that he is a reference for the left? Well, I don’t think so, he’s playing the best he can and that’s it. As an athlete and citizen, I do not like the party’s acronyms to outweigh trying to reach an agreement with another. I am from the PP, you are from the PSOE, we sit here without knowing each other and without telling each other what party we are from and perhaps we will reach an agreement. If we know it, any door closes. That’s angry. How are they going to reach agreements if each one is fighting in their trenches, in their own particular war? There are aspects in which the disputes are more of little children, who are not up to par.

As an Extremaduran, how do you see the territorial problem?

It’s complex. I understand that the autonomous communities compete among themselves. If they want to attract investors or large companies, Madrid will compete with Barcelona or Valencia. What cannot be done, and I am going to the cliché, is the Extremaduran train. It’s not so much an investment, it’s a right. It cannot be that Spain, which is a world power in railway matters, has one of its regions forgotten. We have become accustomed to a stopped train in summer with 40 degrees or diesel trains. That only happens in our land. How are we going to shut up? Just as in Soria they ask for a highway or in Teruel for infrastructure. Of course. It’s trying to balance. It does not make sense that some communities are very high and others are very low. The more egalitarian, the more the country will grow.

Why don’t athletes talk about politics?

Very simple. Sponsors, when you sign a contract, tell you: ‘Be careful what you put on social media or what you say.’ At the outset they notify you that this is reason for the termination of the contract. Once we had a networking workshop and they told us: ‘if you want to defend social causes, let it be peace in the world or an end to hunger.’ That’s fine, but if they’re going to open a refinery next to my house, I can’t defend that. You are a product, but I am not just an athlete. Forcing you not to show certain opinions is also political.

But for minority athletes, networks are an important source of income…

That’s right, if you want to have sponsors you can’t deviate from this line and that will have economic repercussions. But I have always been able to say what I wanted and that is why I have gotten into those messes. And you can also say things politely, without being disrespectful. If you disagree, for example, with the Israeli War, you don’t have to say that all Jews are genocidal.

What cause would you like to defend as a lawyer?

I am very involved in the issue of the anti-doping agency. Not only is it a shame at a national level, it is beginning to be an international one. It cannot be that, due to a procedural issue, we are missing several positives that may be competing. It’s a disaster. And I think of myself. Someone may think: ‘Álvaro is doped’. If my agency functions correctly and shows as much transparency as possible, those clouds of doubt disappear.

Has being the way you are brought you many enmities?

I’ve gotten into a lot of trouble. And it is violent. I can have a good relationship with a person, but if we have to face a situation… With the issue of the anti-doping agency, having to argue between athletes is unpleasant. Because many are my friends. But I have always understood that it was the toll to pay. I have made few enmities, but some very important ones.

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