Valladolid (EFE) In this country there is a “mafia” that prevents horse riding from improving its level.
During his participation in the Breakfasts of the Valladolid Sports Press Association, he explained that his dedication to horse riding was not taken into account at the Casa de Alba until he participated in the Barcelona Olympic Games and obtained fourth place.
That moment was the first time that all the members of his family came to witness his performance, with which he was only three quarters of a point away from having achieved the bronze medal.
“Now I can say it without crying, but I have cried a lot, because I have participated in many tests, but my family did not believe me, and when I won a World Championship test, my mother congratulated me when she saw me start in the newscast,” he recounted.
Cayetano Martínez de Irujo in a file image. EFE
And he continued explaining: “By my record, I am among the four-five best riders in Spain, but I have not been valued as an athlete, and it has taken me many years, from Barcelona, to see the bottle half full instead of half empty , when touching with the fingers that Olympic medal ”.
But he is aware that a fourth place in the Olympic Games is a success, above all, “if you see what has happened with horse riding in Spain afterwards, since this has become a mafia, full of guides who live very Good about this, but there is no structure, there is no teaching or breeding, and without it, it will continue to be a second-rate country in this sport”, he has qualified.
his passion
In her case, to be able to enjoy her “passion”, which was horses, she had to free herself from “family pressure”, “breaking very large educational structures”, and when she reached that fourth place in the Barcelona Olympic Games, she had to face the “pain” that meant “not feeling valued”, “since they only talked about the 22 medals achieved”.
In political matters, Martínez de Irujo has called for “common sense to be put at the polls on July 23”, since he considers that farmers “can no longer take it” and that now “with the excuse of renewables, they can expropriate land to set up projects, without one being able to do anything to prevent it, which is causing many unfair situations”.
Martínez de Irujo has been president of the World Riders Association for 12 years, and left it to create the Association of Athletes in Spain but, in this country, someone like him “annoys” since he tries to “be pure, direct, think about the others and not stop to judge anyone”.
“It is essential to have a good structure, that the cheeks that are involved leave, and that they allow access to this sport to all people, because it can be practiced like any other when you are not competing. You have to help national breeding and have a more serious and rigorous qualification ”, he concluded. EFE