Melanie García, from Decathlon to be the starting goalkeeper for Spain in the Field Hockey World Cup

Melanie García, goalkeeper of the Spanish team. Spanish Field Hockey Federation

She had been second goalkeeper for the Spanish team for seven years and, tired of waiting, after the Tokyo Games she decided to step aside and open up other paths in life.

Thus, Melanie García (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria; 31 years old) threw resumes everywhere and accepted the first thing that came to her, in logistics of a Decathlon carrying machinery and pallets.

Two months later, 60 days of getting up early at four in the morning, she called the coach.

The starting goalkeeper, María de los Ángeles Ruiz, was going to be a mother and was leaving the national team.

"You have to do very badly not to play," coach Adrian Lock told him then.

Mel, as they all call her, left Decathlon and went back to doing more work than anyone, always the last to leave the gym because she understands that goalkeepers don't do much physical work.

"She wants to improve, give more to the team and we notice that," says one of the captains, Gigi Oliva.

“It is her moment because now she is not only part of the team, but she is also competing.

And she's showing off her capabilities,” adds Lock.

"I feel like it's my World Cup, that my teammates support me and trust me," Mel replies before facing India in the round of 16 (9:30

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“I like having this responsibility and having taken away the pain of not being the first goalkeeper when I always had been everywhere else”.

And that hockey and being a goalkeeper was by chance.

She first approached the sport because in her high school, when she was 12 years old, they made a demonstration with the

and, along with friends from the neighborhood, they tried their luck.

Mel stayed on the team and, in an open day game, she was not the team's goalkeeper and she, even though she was not wearing a helmet or gloves because she had always been an outfield player, decided to get under the sticks.

“She was very unaware”, she recounts, amused, as she enumerates the number of protections she wears now (cup, pants, feet, shafts, breastplate, helmet and gloves).

She, although she did so well that at the end of the clash the Canary Islands coach summoned her for the next call.

At that time, her mother, a tireless worker because she had four at home, she thought that she played volleyball.

Something that changed over time because at the age of 17 she went to Barcelona for three courses, to Polo, she returned home for another two seasons,

He went to Lille for a year in France and another two to White Star in Belgium to return to Polo, where he has already spent seven years.

And she, although she was summoned to the absolute with 19 years, she later spent five long years without being summoned by Spain.

"I missed the national team," says Mel, who also studied social integration at the same time.

But Lock called her to be the second, a role that bothered her, but she did not transmit it.

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“I don't know anyone who did the role of second better, he was a ten”, praises Xantal Giné.

“That role took him very well despite how tough it is.

We have always been grateful to him because he had a smile on his face, ”added Captain María López.

“He is a very hard-working person who was waiting for this, his opportunity.

And we trust her a lot”, adds Alejandra Torres-Quevedo.

“He has taken it with enthusiasm and is showing that he is at an exceptional level.

May he continue like this for many years, ”Marta Segú intervenes.

"He was exceptional for the group and now he's not only part of the team, but he competes at a high level," Lock compliments him.

“That and that the new ones, also the goalkeepers that we arrived, encourages us, helps us…”, emphasizes Jana.

"It was about," Mel resolves;

“to enjoy and create good vibes, to put the team before myself,

But the entire dressing room highlights his cheerful character, also his desire to bite gracefully - "it must be because it's Canaria", a few say - and his ability to communicate on the field.

"I have a good time," says Mel, who admits that the save he likes to do the most is that of a dragged in a penalty-corner that requires him to throw himself to the ground.

She also enjoys table tennis, the swimming pool, table football and playing some Play at the concentration camp in Spain, but she gives herself little room for leisure because, committed to the responsibility of being the first, she applies herself with the videos of the rivals, their penalty-corner shots, how they enter the area and, incidentally, extra training sessions.

It's her moment, her World Cup, and she doesn't want to waste it.

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