Today, it is the 25th anniversary of Daniel Plaza's victory at the Barcelona Olympic Games.
Roberto Alvarez by El Pais dedicates this beautiful article to him.
Glory and misery, ecstasy and drama, all in a few meters, after having walked for more than 19 kilometers. Daniel Plaza will never forget the explosion of joy that caused his entry into the Olympic Stadium on the hot afternoon of July 31, 1992, seasoned with a humidity of 89%. 25 years later, in silence, the empty stands, clothed like in the street, shudders: "Uff! I still get goosebumps." The triumph filled a passion, rewarded the efforts of half life, opened the gates to an overflowing joy, that of the prophet in his land.
And there were even more. Jordi Llopard, the son of Moisés, his coach, the same man who had created a school and guarded champions in El Prat, very close to the Montjuïc Stadium, had challenged him. "Dani, if you want to make history you have to became the first. If not, I will always be ahead," repeated the walker who had won the first gold medal for spanish athletics and European gold (Prague 1978) and also the first medal in a Games (silver in Moscow 1980). The only way to overcome him was to win the first gold of Spanish athletics in a Games.
He got it. "Not in my best dreams did I think that would happen to me," he sighed. Her mother trusted him and an extra help. "She was devoted to Mary Immaculate. She put candles on him when I competed. That day she put two in our house in El Prat. And when he was already on the circuit, about to start the test, she began to fear that she had left them lit by the curtains. She sent my father to check it, not to cause a fire. So my father could not see the race until the end. He went up the hill to Montjuïc, running. The people, the neighbors of the village who knew him and the security officers, were shouting 'That is Dani's father !, he is his father!", So that they would be allowed to pass. He came almost to the press room to hug me." It was ecstasy.
The drama had come a few minutes earlier. Plaza did not notice until much later. Valenti Massana was disqualified very close to the stadium, when he caressed, at least, the silver medal. "I turned around a little before entering the stadium to see how calm I could go the last few meters. 'Where is him?' I wondered. I've been looking for it for the last 800 meters. I understood that, depending on how we got to the end, I could sprint and win. There was a margin of 10 seconds, which in our race is enough, but that fit that possibility. He and I had sometimes sprinted on other races. Sometimes he won and sometimes, like the following year, I, although normally our races are not decided in the last 500 or 1,000 meters."
Disqualification is the great fear of walkers. A foot a little higher than you can melt them. In the case of Massana, in a race like the Games, at home, the disqualification was tragic. Climbing the fearsome 800 meters towards Montjuïc, shortly before the entrance to the tunnel of access to the stadium, he received the third red cards. Farewell to the most dreamed medal. "I received a warning, but the truth is that I was not worried," recounts Plaza. "We had worked very hard because, in the World Championaships a year before, I was disqualified after having finished third. Being the two Spaniards possibly would not let us get together. And when you're paired it's easier to make a mistake. I bowed my head and I still had not heard. I thought I might have suffered a faint."
Plaza and Massana were doomed to be bitter rivals. They were the two best Spaniards and they were in the world elite. "The titles were decided by what we could do. But we knew how to separate the competitive part of the staff. Many times we trained together and I think we have managed to do well. " In fact, Plaza stayed with Massana on June 30 in the Serrahima, next to the Stadium, to meet while they were attending the Ciutat de Barcelona. "We try not to spend the time counting battles. We did competitions where we helped each other. I remember the final of the Monterrey World Cup in which a group escaped and Valentí said: 'Wait, wait, they're going to fall, you'll see.' We waited, and in the end he was second and I was fourth. That yes, in the Games each one was doing its tactics and if you had to leave it behind, you did it ".
The key that day of 25 years ago occurred in kilometer 14. "There I was able to take them about 10 seconds," says the Olympic champion. "We played the color of the medals because there were only three left. Then Valenti spent what happened. With him, we have never spoken of Barcelona. For me it is very important. He assumed what happened at the time and that's it. And he won the World Cup next year. "
(Edn)
The writer was exactly five meters away from the stop of Massana's dream.
Also for me was the first Olympics. A dream come true.