A gold 12 years later

Close to retirement and almost without a leg. “An accident like this changes your life”, admits Marina González at the age of 41 and after winning her first Spanish Cyclocross Championship in Xátiva. The story goes back many years before, in 2009, when she has a degree in Physical Activities and Sports and was at the height of her career. She “she came from the Tour de France and competed in the Spanish Cycling Championship in Laredo. She was in a breakaway with seven runners”, she describes little by little, with the calm that comes from overcoming the situation after many years. “She was the last of the group and the one in front made a signal because there was a judge controlling. They all dodged it, but it didn't give me time, ”she says.

The next step was a hard fall, one of those that can leave you without sport, without a leg or even without life. “I went seven meters through the air and hit the guardrail. I was really lucky because it could have been much worse, ”she admits even though that incident cut her cycling path short. The blow against her metal severed her quadriceps to the point that, in the hospital, they didn't know how to sew it. “I was left without feeling in my leg. I have scars and there are places that I touch and feel nothing, ”she specifies. However, over time, her medical work and rehabilitation eventually made her leg work. “Respond well. They even told me that I would not recover. When I was trying to get back on the bike, it was not going well and my back hurt a lot. But thanks to a doctor who recommended me to run, I was recovering. I spent a year and a half to do it”, reveals the athlete.

From that incident, she began a new stage. She had been riding the bike continuously since before she was ten years old. "She had already participated in the Spanish cyclocross, mountain bike and road championships," she says. She was angry with the Galician cycling managers and, thanks to her races, she recovered her sporting level until she was a reference in the duathlon. She also won a Spanish Championship, but in that modality. That was how the life of Marina González went until last year, in another state but cyclocross, the Vigo and ex-technician of the Galician Federation Guillermo Sande died of a heart attack. "He had always encouraged me to return to cycling, which was my field and I was going to like it," she says. And she ended up taking the plunge. To do this, she also had to find the right bicycle and, in Xátiva, at the age of 41, the Verinesa based in Vigo won the Spanish master cyclocross championship 40, which completed a glorious winter season with victory in the Galicia Cup and the Copa from Spain.

“I didn't know I was going to have this level. The campaign was very good and a victory like that is more enjoyable than when you are young. Before, I was in a team, they give you support and take you to the races, ”she relates. However, nowadays, “you have to find time to train before or after work, pay for things and you know the difficulties. Everything is much more complicated, you know it and that's why you savor it more ”, she concludes. And it is that the day to day of Marina González is a kind of against the clock because she works as a shop assistant in Zara, with the consequent shift changes. “And luckily they give me many facilities to go to the races. I work from Monday to Saturday and, in December, in the height of the season, many Sundays. You have to ask for favors to be able to go running and I am very grateful to the companions, ”she is sincere. When the cyclist raised her arms in Xátiva, it was “the first weekend of sales. Letting me go that day has great merit.” Of course, when she returned she was able to wield the first position. Since she got permission, at least finish on top of the podium.

George Wallerstein, astronomer extraordinaire, has passed at 91. Great humor and spirit, adventurous soul, brillian… https://t.co/vvYpOlmaLu

— Heather Preston Sat May 15 12:40:02 +0000 2021

Much of the blame for the gold is also shared by his teammates from the Illas Cíes Cycling Team. “It's my team, they support me a lot and they also drown me many times because they have a level. This is what allows me to be in shape to be able to win, like this season, ”she describes. And, despite her scarred leg and little feeling, she found herself really comfortable in cyclocross. To a great extent, for the years dedicated to the race and the duathlon. “It gives you extra strength and also more ease in the areas of running, stairs and carrying the bike. It cost me less than others and I felt less effort, ”she describes.

the first medal

Little by little, she remembers the way in which she came to this victory. Marina González left Verín to study at the age of 18. She majored in sports and physical activities while she grew up in cycling. She later worked in her fields until she switched to selling clothes. And, in her memory, she preserves that accident that changed her sports career. She was very close to severing her entire leg and, above all, it changed her way of “seeing life”. She got a gold medal in a Spanish Championship a long time later. Yes, cyclocross. “Sometimes I think that first medal could have come in that accident race. We were going seven breakaways with twenty kilometers to go and, in the end, the victory and the medals were at stake for the six that were with me. Who knows, maybe I wore it”, she muses aloud after the morning shift in the store and a few hours before doing the traditional long training session on Sunday morning. At least, more than 12 years later, she had the opportunity to raise her arms on top of the bike. A gold for the tribute to Guillermo Sande and, above all, with a huge personal taste of satisfaction and happiness after the scars of sport and life