Marc Tur, marcher and fourth in Tokyo 2020: "I generate more expectation since I recognized that I am gay"

On August 13, a week after finishing fourth in the Tokyo Olympics, the walker Marc Tur (Santa Eulalia, Ibiza; 27 years old) made his homosexuality public.

Since then, his life has changed.

“Now I am more exposed.

I know that what I say or do is going to have more repercussion in certain aspects.

It's not exaggerated either, but it shows.

I am no longer the unknown Marc Tur from before”, he declares to this newspaper before leaving for Lisbon, where this weekend he is starting the road to a summer full of tests.

First, in Portugal.

Then Madrid and A Coruña.

And then the main course.

At the World Championships in Oregon (United States) and at the European Championships in Munich (Germany), Tur, distinguished as the best Spanish athlete of 2021, will try to seal the goal that has been on his mind since the Tokyo race: get a medal.

"It's realistic," he says, still with the nervous laugh of someone who is not used to seeing himself as a favourite.

The expectation about his figure has changed since the Olympic event, where he arrived without pressure, outside the list of applicants.

Now, a candidate for everything, he has to adapt to the vigilance of rivals, to the spotlight and, more importantly, to expectations: "It's difficult, because no matter how much you prepare, you can always fail."

To manage this uncertainty, Tur, a graduate in Medicine —currently pursuing a master's degree in aesthetic medicine and nutrition—, asked for help.

In 2019, the Ibizan began working every week with his sports psychologist, Obdulia Tejón.

"It's central to my preparation," she says.

“The mental part is almost 50% of what we do, even more.

[...] In a test as long as ours, it is essential to have a cool mind, clear ideas and keep dark thoughts away”.

Marc Tur, in red, in the center of the image, during the Tokyo 2020 50-kilometer walk test. GIUSEPPE CACACE (AFP)

Tur refers to doubts, present even in the most armored mind.

“We believe that we are strong, that because we are elite athletes we are going to be able to do everything, but no.

We are vulnerable, like any person.”

During such a long test, in which the athletes endure more than three and a half hours without lifting their feet from the asphalt, the head is treacherous.

“Even if it lasts a second, it is inevitable that at some point you think that you cannot, that you are not capable.

But you can't fall apart for that second."

To avoid this, the one from Santa Eulalia projects several races in one: “If I compete in a 50, I imagine 50 different races, each one of a kilometer, with its respective finish line.

It is key to function in the short term.”

Thus, he says, he keeps his mind clean and his goals are not diluted by exhaustion.

The discipline for which he was prepared since he was young, the 50 kilometer walk, present at the Olympic Games since 1932, said goodbye in Tokyo.

Now, Tur has changed his training to get used to 35 kilometers, his new distance.

At first, he says, it was difficult for him: “The pace is much faster – they run the kilometer in an average of 4m, 15s – and the training is more specific.

In '50 you went out, you let the kilometers pass and the competition really began after three hours.

That is over.

We are going much faster now and there may be a change of pace from the start.

Staying focused is very important."

Light and lanky —he measures 1.90m—, Tur has always respected injuries.

The march, especially damaging to the knee and hip, has not affected his health, something that he, he admits, is not usual: “In sports we mortgage our body.

Objectively, what we do is not healthy, it harms our health in the long term;

but it's like a drug, you can't quit it."

Since the Tokyo diploma, her life has changed.

On the track, Olympic success has made him a more sedate individual.

“Before I used to face competitions… And I was afraid to compete.

At the Olympics he was very nervous.”

Now, he says, he is aware that it is possible to fail, and he lives with it: “The world does not end because of a race”.

Outside of competition, his life has also been turned upside down.

After making his homosexuality public, Tur receives messages of thanks on social networks every week.

Testimonies of people who, like him, have suffered

because of his sexual orientation: “When I read those stories, I still realize what remains to be done.

In the day to day there are things that are not seen, or that are innocuous for certain people outside the group, but that affect many people.

The walker, who suffered harassment and ridicule in his own flesh, has always recognized that he saw athletics as a refuge.

And he doesn't want anyone to go through what he went through: "I'm worried about the 15-year-old who suffers in high school or who isn't accepted by his family."

Accustomed to life in the big city, far from his island, Tur assures that, despite the homophobic attacks he still receives on social networks, there has been no change in his immediate environment: "It's that

.. I would like that expression to not exist.

I would like it to be something normal, that it was not news.”

In the fight to achieve it, Tur has very clear goals.

First, the World Cups in Oregon, in July.

A month later, he will attend the European Championships in Munich.

And later, he has his favorite event marked in red: Paris 2024. There, he says, there is only one goal: to get a medal.

Later, he will see: “For now I will complete this Olympic cycle.

Then, I don't know when, I want to dedicate myself to medicine, something in which I have invested a lot of time”.

Thus, after the demanding Olympic test in Paris, the Ibizan does not rule out leaving it and starting the preparation of the MIR.

"I have it pending and it motivates me a lot," he says, still smiling.

You can follow EL PAÍS Deportes on