Ray Zapata flies to silver

13 years after Gervasio Deferr's silver on the ground in Beijing in 2008, Spanish gymnastics once again get on an Olympic podium. He does it thanks to Ray Zapata who, at 28 years old, also gets the silver on the ground. A bittersweet medal because Zapata's score was the same as that of the Israeli Artem Dolgopyat (14,933). But, when there is equality in the execution (8.433), the criterion that is valid to tie the tie is that of difficulty. And Dolgopyat's exercise had one more pinch (6,600 by 6,500). The bronze went to the Chinese Routeng Xiao (14,766). "I am so happy, I have trained like a bastard," says the Spaniard, who already appears with the official tracksuit in the mixed zone without letting go of the bouquet of flowers and without stopping to show the silver medal that he wears around his neck. On the podium I couldn't stop crying, so many things in my head,so many bad moments that, as he tells half an hour later, they made him consider leaving gymnastics because, he says, nobody believed in him, they called him lazy and wanted him out.

Nikita Nagornyy, Russian, the first to start in the floor final and the one with the best qualifying score (15,066), went off the track on the first jump.

And he has already lost the north, one imperfection after another, and said goodbye to the medals.

One less rival, Zapata must have thought at that time, and perhaps that was when he decided not to risk with Zapata II, that "element cucumber" that, according to coach Fernando Siscar, just an extremely powerful and skilled gymnast like him. I could do it.

The Zapata II, a double somersault in plank with a twist and a half, stays in a Zapata I, grouped.

Photogallery: Ray Zapata's performance in the floor final

The element in question remains that way because they decided so after qualifying and so Benjamin Banjo, their coach, tells it. “When we saw the qualifying exercise, we saw that there was a possibility of making some good receptions and we decided not to risk and work on the execution. And the result has been good ”. Banjo describes Zapata's exercise in the final as "exceptional". “He has nailed almost all the lines except two: the entrance of a small step and the second diagonal where he has taken a step back. Otherwise it has been excellent ”.

And Ray, because for everyone it is Ray, simply speaking, while his technician is talking, he is away taking pictures, he says afterwards that he has gone out "to give cane".

And he does not stop thanking everyone who crosses him in the endless fenced corridors of the mixed zone.

“Thanks to everyone who has put up with me a lot, because I'm a bore.

Thanks to my wife, my daughter, my psychologist and my coach, who is heavier than me, to my friends, to everyone who has pushed me to get here.

And to those who did not trust ... thank you also because, as much as if they want to or not, I have succeeded, "he says.

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An hour before the final, images of Fátima Gálvez and Alberto Fernández appear on the giant screen of the Ariake Gymnastics Center biting the medal they won this Saturday in Olympic shooting, the first gold for Spain. Ray Zapata is not aware of it, he is at what he has to be, at his own. Hit the track at four in the afternoon Japanese time to warm up before the final. And he doesn't look up, he looks at his hands, white with magnesium, looks at the ground and

bang

,

bang

,

bang

,

bang,

the sounds of the feet rumble, nail the jumps, one after another. Stretch your legs, drink water, walk up and down, left to right, around the tapestry. With him, all his rivals, the majority still without sticking the number on their back. Ray does. As if he can't take it anymore for playing his first Olympic final.

So focused was he that he even stopped looking at social media these days. You think that in the days before an Olympic final, an athlete thinks how hard the road has been to get there. And more in the case of Zapata, with an Olympic cycle with two operations, with months of not slewing an eye, with fatherhood. And when asked what was going through his head in recent days, he answers that it is difficult to explain. “What I have done to get here has been very hard, but I was not thinking about that, but about what exercise to do in the final because I had several and I broke my head thinking which was the most successful to compete in an Olympic final. Do you have to risk? Do you have to assure ?, were my doubts. He told me: 'I have an exercise that is two tenths more difficult, but I still don't arrive on time, it's still risky ”.Finally, he got the choice right.

🇪🇸🤸 Huge Ray Zapata in the floor final!

💪 His performance gives him a score of 14,933 and now it is time to wait for the rest of the rivals to see if he achieves a medal.

Good luck!

📱📺💻 Live every unmissable moment live on the @Eurosport_ES App pic.twitter.com/e6r4zy7Uzj

- Eurosport.es (@Eurosport_ES) August 1, 2021

The pavilion seems to be full when they announce the name of the Spanish gymnast because in the stands, the Spaniards of the team shout so much that they seem 200. There are just 10. Enough to accompany each jump of Ray with a “bieeeeeen”. And Ray, who although he finally did not take a risk with the Zapata II, his new element, knows that he has done a great exercise (the judges gave him 6.5 in difficulty and 8.433 in execution) because when he finishes he throws a fist in the air and screams "Síííííí" and runs off to hug his coach and show the camera a bib with the name of his daughter, Olympia. Never has a name been more accurate. There will be no better gift for her than the medal from Dad, who, while his rivals finish competing, scrutinizes the track with an excited face. And he cries, he cries excitedly when there are only two athletes left to compete. And cries even more when,At 5.30 p.m., you already know that it is a sure medal. And, at 5:35 p.m., the cry of liberation arrives.

Zapata, after receiving the silver medal on the ground.Getty

But, confesses his technician, some of the tears were due to nerves.

"Benjamin, I'm going to go, I'm going to go," he repeated when he saw his rivals jump on the track.

And it does not go away.

And he says that one of the keys is that Pablo del Río, his psychologist, made him see that the magnifying glass should not be put on the medals, but in his exercise because the medal is only a consequence of what is being done.

And what he repeated to himself the most these days was not: "I'm going to win, I'm going to win, I'm going to win", but "I'm going to go nailing series and I'm going to do my exercise."

The goal, he confesses, was a score of 15,300.

"It could not be, but it was still good, I would say that fucking mother because I nailed five series of seven."

And in the end, when journalists ask him about the way to get here (in Rio 2016 he did not reach the final) and what was the hardest moment, he answers that just before the pandemic.

“There have been very hard moments, the injuries have not been because I have taken it as a break, but I was about to retire from gymnastics and leave it because there were people who did not want me in the CAR room, they did not want me in Absolute, they made my life impossible, they put me aside so that I would get discouraged, so that I would leave it.

But I am very heavy ”.

And when was that?

“Just before the covid, I was called lazy and things like that.

And look, being lazy you can't get this, ”he says, showing the medal.

And he leaves without stopping to give thanks.

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