Hugo González, swimmer: “I no longer feel like a stranger at the World Cups”

Hugo González de Oliveira, the best Spanish swimmer of his generation, a prodigy of elasticity and gliding who won three golds at the 2017 Junior World Championships, concluded his particular journey through the desert in Qatar.

At 25 years old, after participating in two Olympics and four World Cups in which he struggled to match his best times, he finally managed to live up to the expectations that his extreme ease in moving in the water always generated.

Last Friday, after winning silver in the 100-meter backstroke at the Doha Swimming World Championships, he won the 200m championship with a finish that invites us to think big in the Paris Games next summer: 28.98 seconds in the last length.

A finishing time typical of the heyday of the waterproof swimsuit - now banned - which a decade ago coincided with the largest wave of backstroke virtuosos ever gathered in a pool: Aaron Peirsol, Ryosuke Irie, Ryan Lochte and Arkady Vyatchanin.

The day that Peirsol took the world record to the unfathomable abyss of 1m51.92 seconds, July 31, 2009, these four amphibians stopped the clock of the last 50 successively in 28.62s;

27.88s;

30.14s;

and 29.48s.

“The results are only a time,” said the swimmer this Saturday.

“But to do that time you have to be mentally well.

In the perfect situation.

Neither with too much desire, nor with too little desire.

It is complicated but with experience it becomes more controllable.”

All 200 meter inline swimming events are tactical duels.

It's not enough to be the fastest.

The one that manages the rhythms with the most precision prevails, so that when the last few meters are reached, the body can burn the remaining fuel reserve as efficiently as possible.

The Spaniard's record in these World Cups indicates a huge reserve of energy.

The kind of tool that stirs heroic dreams.

Dreams that Doha nurtured in its rare window of opportunity.

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Hugo González, world champion in the 200 meters backstroke

With many of the best swimmers from the United States, Australia, Japan and China absent, focused on preparing for the Olympic Games scheduled for five months from now, the Spaniard found himself with less opposition than usual.

The mark that won him the championship, 1m 55.30s, was his best time ever but it does not exceed 161 in the absolute ranking of the best times in the discipline.

He alone would have guaranteed him bronze at the World Championships held in Fukuoka last summer.

The Spaniard intends to hunt for gold in Paris, the Doha coup could be an important step on a path towards the unknown.

Today the 200 meter backstroke is a Mostrenca discipline.

With the legendary generation of Peirsol exhausted and the Lochte cycle closed in Rio 2016, the American Ryan Murphy is hardly stretching his validity in a kingdom that until the Tokyo Games corresponded to the Russian Evgeny Rylov, Olympic champion in 2021 and last to drop below 29 seconds in the last pitch of a grand final.

But Rylov has resigned from Paris because he refuses to condemn the invasion of Ukraine, as the Olympic Committee demands of him.

The emptiness is evident.

In the absence of candidates emerging who for now remain in the shadows, the candidates to fill it are Hugo González, the Hungarian Kos Hubert, champion in Fukuoka and absent in Doha, and the American Jack Aikins, a 19-year-old project.

Berkeley

Hugo González jumps to first position on the grid after a year with no news at the front.

His best time last summer was 1m 56.33s.

He is 34th in the 2023 record ranking to conclude his time as a scholarship student as a swimmer on the University of California at Berkeley team.

“Right now I'm swimming as a professional,” he explains;

“I continue with the training group with which I trained in the last Olympics because I believe it is the best to achieve high performance.”

Graduated in Philology in California and preparing to obtain a degree in computer engineering from UCAM, the Spaniard has taken advantage of the hospitality of his old mentor, Dave Durden, to remain in Berkeley, in the pool that hosts the best university team in the United States.

Under Durden, the Golden Bears reached at least second place in every NCAA college championship played in the last decade.

Between 2018 and 2023, Hugo González deployed all his versatility to score points in the American short course.

As a bracista, as a specialist in style tests, and as a backstroke.

So many abilities, and going head-to-head with teammates like Ryan Murphy, Hunter Armstrong, Dare Rose, Abbey Weitzeil and Jack Alexy—all award-winning members of the U.S. national team—led him to doubts when it came to selecting races in the Olympic and world programs.

“My time in Doha is a result of an accumulation,” he observes.

“My job hasn't changed.

These brands come out for everything done in previous seasons.

But last season in Fukuoka I did six 200s in two and a half days and that takes its toll.

This year I haven't swum the 200 medleys and I have more gas left in the backstroke to use in the final.”

“We are evaluating the best options for Paris,” he adds.

“We have to weigh whether I go for the styles or the back.

I train as much as I can to be the best swimmer possible.

I have not trained any test more than the other.

Then when the championships arrive we make the decisions.

In Doha we thought the 200 backstroke was a safer bet.”

He speaks in the first person plural out of deference to the authority of the federation coaches, but it could well be a majestic plural.

With his experience, he feels qualified to draw up his own strategy.

“The experience has changed me as a swimmer,” he observes.

“In these championships, respect is always there for all the opponents.

But now I feel like I have more control over what I do.

I control the details: warm-ups, rest, nutrition... I don't feel like a stranger.

I have done many Spanish championships and I know perfectly what to do at all times.

"I'm glad to have the same feeling at a World Cup."

Hugo González placed sixth in the 50 backstroke this Sunday and returned to Madrid, where he will stay for a few days before flying to San Francisco to get ready for the Games.

In five months he will face the challenge of his life.

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