The Catalan has won silver in the snowboard halfpipe test at the Beijing Winter Games
The Barcelona Queralt Castelletwho has achieved Spain’s first medal at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics by capturing silver in the snowboard halfpipe event held this Thursday, declared in Zhangjiakou that she is “excited” and “very happy” after finishing second in a race that was won by the great favorite, the American Chloe Kim.
Castellet, born 32 years ago in Sabadell and who participated in her fifth Games, thus achieved the fifth Spanish Olympic medal in the entire history of the Winter Olympics, after Francisco Fernández Ochoa’s gold in alpine skiing, in Sapporo 1972 ( Japan); and the bronzes of his sister Blanca -also in that sport, twenty years later, in Albertville (France)- and of Regino Fernández -in snowboard boardercross- and Javier Fernández -in figure skating-, in the last PyeongChang Games ( South Korea), four years ago.
“I am excited, I am very happy; It has been an incredible day; I got the medal. Yuuuhh!!”, exclaimed Queralt, in statements provided to EFE from Zhanggjiakou by the Royal Spanish Federation of Winter Sports (RFEDI). “It has been incredible, I started a little badly and then all the nerves came to me, but I have been able to get the round I wanted, in the second; a round that I have been working for a long, long time. Many years. I’m very happy“, Queralt said in China as soon as he got the silver medal. “After that first round all the nerves came to me, all the pressure came to me, all the thoughts of how important this is for me came to me and, however, I think that a force has also come to me from I don’t know where to get this round for which I have been working for so long and it has come out and with this they have given me second place & rdquor ;, she comments excitedly with a broken voice. The position behind Chloe, who is an incredible rider and athlete, is a great honor and one that I am very proud of.”
“I wanted this very much, I have been working for this for many years. Obviously after so many attempts at the Games, it’s easy to think, why not? why doesn’t it come? And finally being able to do it today… It’s something I’m very, very happy about, I still can’t believe it”, assured the Catalan. “I focused on doing the round I wanted. I knew it was a very powerful round, with a lot of variety and, although after the first round I thought that they were not assessing, then they did assess that I am starting with Switch Backside and that I am doing a round with a lot of variety and quality & rdquor ;, he related. “What has come to my mind after seeing the medal has been all the people who have been supporting me from the beginning: my family, my friends, all the people who have suffered difficult times with me and all the people who have experienced this from the first moment & rdquor ;, he concludes.
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May Peus: “Queralt deserved it, sport has done her justice”
May Peus, president of the Royal Spanish Winter Sports Federation (RFEDI) told EFE from Zhangjiakou that “we are very happy for Queralt, who has won a medal that comes at an optimal time for her, after many years fighting for that medal, many years working on it”, explained, in a telephone conversation with Efe from China, the president of the Spanish federation. “He had two medals in World Cups and this one was missing, which is the first silver medal for Spanish winter sports in a Games. Two medals in a row in a Games for our country is something unprecedented,” said the head of the Spanish snow . “Queralt deserved it, the truth is that sport has done justice to her,” the president of the RFEDI told EFE from Zhangjiakou on Thursday.