Fernando Carro, from heaven to hell, and back

Chariot, in the 3000m obstacles of the Tokyo Olympic Games. DIEGO AZUBEL (EFE)

These are the words of Fernando Carro: “When I arrived at [the Olympic Games in] Tokyo I injured my hamstring.

On my return, I endured my form for a month, which was exceptional form”, says the Spanish record holder in the 3,000m obstacles, one of the best European specialists.

“I came to the Games to touch the sky, and suddenly I saw hell.

Shit.

It's all over..."

Only after nine months, and after surgery on both feet in January, was Carro, 30, able to feel in his glory again, although not in his beloved test, and so abusive of his tendons, always at the breaking point, always screaming in pain.

It was the half marathon (21,097.5 meters), a competition in which he was making his debut — "I didn't even know the exact distance, and my coach laughed at me," he says, already in good humor and optimism—,

Chariot traveled from heaven to hell and back to heaven, but in between, purgatory.

The desperation, and the cry of “shit!”, came to him a month after Tokyo.

In Madrid he forced the recovery of his hamstring with long sessions on the Alter G (the roller that simulates a lack of gravity so as not to damage the joints), which allowed him to maintain his form but left him without strength in his feet.

"At the meeting in Budapest I hurt myself, and in Paris, a fall in the estuary caused a rupture in my left tendon, the other, because I had surgery on my right five years ago," says Carro, who in Berlin, four years, he achieved silver at the European Championships.

“I suffer from Haglund's deformity, in the calcaneus, the heel bone.

In the area where the Achilles tendon inserts I have some overgrown bumps, a congenital deformity.

That bulge puts pressure on the tendons and causes micro-tears.

The solution?

Get rid of the bumps.

In both bones.

That was done in January by Dr. David López Capapé.”

emotional toll

The athlete looks at the two scars on his heels and feels new.

His scars also tell her about the emotional and relationship crisis he went through, and made the road harder.

“When I had to rehabilitate my feet, I turned everything on an emotional level.

I focused on the friendships, on the emotional period of convulsive change that I was in ... ”, he says.

“And, now, having recovered physically, the emotional side is so unbalanced that I focus everything on the physical, training like a bastard.

Six months that have passed very quickly for the world and a little slow for me”.

As sentimental as he is, an athlete at heart, is the team that has guided him through recovery.

The physiotherapists Bodoque and Sergio, the coach, Arturo Martín.

“And then, the fundamental raw material, which is Fernando Carro”, says Bodoque, the father of

, the philosophy of athletics and the generosity that he applies from the stretcher at the CAR in Madrid.

The raw material has responded.

“I have been going to Blume since the fifth day of the operation.

Bike, first;

then elliptical, then Alter G, then Alter G and running on the street, then street, then turning...”, lists Carro.

“Six months of uncertainty training every day that give you a lot to think about.

Never to leave the sport: my profession, and also a beacon on a personal level that has always guided me”.

The last hurdle that remains for him to overcome is to manage to break through the obstacles, the vital material of which his career is made, to make the leap to road tests before finishing in the marathon, the logical destination.

“Arturo Casado already told me: 'Fernando, from the first day I saw you in the group, I saw that you could be much better on the road than on the track.'

He said it by my stride and my footprint.

Because of the effectiveness of him,” Carro says.

“A part of me wants to go back to the obstacle;

the other tells me that if I can defend myself so well on the route, and take advantage of the media pull that I have with the

, who are the ones who move the sponsorships... They don't know how barbaric it is to run at 2.41m per kilometer jumping rivers and fences, an animal.

But you tell them that you run the half marathon at 3m or 3.01, and easy, right away they see that it's crazy.

It's just been easy for me..."

The other part of Carro, the romantic one, tells him to never forget the obstacle.

“My coach tells me: 'I wouldn't like the test to throw you out, but for you to say goodbye...'.

This year, no, but next year, thinking about the Paris Games, or the European Cup in Vallehermoso, there are things that can have a certain magic to fight for them, because I'm in shape.

In two months, I'm ready to destroy them all in any test.

Fewer bones, like race cars, lighter, no seats… And faster…”.

And even happy, in heaven again.

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