When Maialen Chourraut won the silver medal in the women’s K1 at the Tokyo Olympics onlookers could have been forgiven for believing she had repeated her gold medal performance from Rio in 2016.
The Spaniard shed more tears than the gold and bronze medalists combined. Tears of sheer joy, an outpouring of emotion after five tough years preparing to defend her Olympic title.
In Tokyo Chourraut was 38-years-old. She had found juggling the expectations that come with being an Olympic gold medalist, while also being a mother, had taken its toll. Many expected it would be the last we would see of the bubbly Spaniard at the top level. Even Chourraut believed that was the end.
One of the toughest hurdles was being away from her eight-year-old daughter, Ane. Covid restrictions made it impossible for Ane to be with Maialen and her husband at the Games, and it hurt a lot.
For me to come here was the biggest step
"Being a mother and a gold medalist took me to the limit," she said at the time.
"The gold medal in Rio caused a lot of extra stress. I had to attend to many phone calls nearly every day and I began to have a lot more commitments away from the water.
"My daughter started to go to school and that meant she also had a lot more needs to attend to. All of that meant that I began to get over-worked and I ended up paying for that with injuries... It was really hard.”
On Thursday Maialen Chourraut was back on the world stage, now 39 but with the excitement of a teenager.
“For me to come here was the biggest step,” Chourraut said after sneaking through to Saturday’s K1 semi-finals in 29th position.
“After Tokyo I needed a rest, because I never stopped. Always when I finished the season, next day I started training again. After Tokyo I didn’t know what to do with my life, so I needed some time for thinking.
Shortly after the Tokyo Olympics Chourraut went to the Spanish championships to try and qualify for extreme slalom. She didn’t make the cut, and she was mortified.
“I wanted to do extreme!” she said.
“I was fighting with myself, so I thought ‘why stop if I feel so much fire inside of me because I’m out of the extreme team. I have to try it.
“So that was the reason I decided to continue paddling. I started training in the middle of October, but the next three months – October, November and December – were horrible. Every day in training I was thinking maybe I can’t continue.”
Why stop if I feel so much fire inside of me
It wasn’t a lack of desire or a lack of form, it was nagging pain in her left shoulder that was almost making paddling unbearable.
Chourraut was no stranger to shoulder problems. She had surgery on both, in 2004 and 2005. But now, with an Olympic gold, silver and bronze medal already in her keeping, she had to make a decision.
“If I wanted to try and get to Paris, I had to do something with my shoulder,” she said.
“I went to see how it was, and they told me if I wanted to continue, I would need to again have surgery.
“At that moment I was very clear in my mind that I wanted to continue. Retirement was out.”
Chourraut had surgery in February, and every day up until one month ago was doing special exercises to strengthen her shoulder again. Her goal was to get to the world championships in Augsburg, and not have a whole year without racing.
“Next year is such an important year, it is Olympic qualifications in London, so I have to be at my best,” Chourraut said.
“So to be here was necessary. So we came, and the first days of paddling were horrible because I’m not fit, I was scared of the water because it pushed me hard.”
Hang on…. Olympic champion Maialen Chourraut, scared of the water? Always, it turns out.
“It’s very scary, the water and everything, it’s one of my things,” she said.
I know that I’m not fast, but I’m here.
“To me, to pass the qualification is like a big dream. I’m in, in the last position, or close to it. I know that I’m not fast, but I’m here.”
The first person to congratulate Maialen on Thursday was nine-year-old daughter, Ane. Born the year after mum won bronze in London, too young to understand the excitement of the Rio gold medal, unable to go to Tokyo to watch mum win silver.
It’s a very good reason why Maialen is pushing on to Paris, potentially her fifth Olympic Games.
