April 14th, survivors announced its thirteenth contestant: Yulen Pereira. An active athlete participating in a reality show. Bombshell. He was the Spanish fencer with the best ranking, both nationally and worldwide, but he decided to put a point and followed his professional career. Weight changes, inactivity… I wasn’t afraid of anything. In fact, she had it all under control. And, in his turn, he is getting results sooner than expected. “People think that I ran away. Not at all. It was thought about, discussed with my coaches, teammates, family… ”, he explains. Manuel Pereira, his father, was world champion in 1989. After leaving the island, his goals point to Paris, to the 2024 Olympic Games, with “the opportunity to get the first medal for the men’s épée.” In the middle of the presentation ceremony SportyRoomwhere he surprises with his basketball skills, a sport he practiced, attends AS.
At what point is it?
With desire. Excited to be here, in Madrid, in the CAR, back where I started. I’m motivated.
He competed in Medina del Campo and in the Madrid Cup, where he won. He has also returned to the international circuit, accessing the final table of a World Cup (Vancouver). How was this first contact?
Good. She thought it was going to be worse, I’m not going to lie. It has been many months out, with many weight changes. I am better than what both the work team and the doctors and physios expected… They are quite surprised because the results are coming earlier than expected. Very happy in that sense. I thought that I was going to be much further from my previous level. Right now, the objective is to be among the twenty or thirty best in the world. The long-term mission is to be among the top ten, to face the Paris Games.
He was already there when he left…
Yes. When I leave, the team is in a good moment. We came from making money in Bern, in fact, and we were among the top ten in the world. I wanted to face a new personal challenge, such as survivors. It was a project that I liked on a personal level and very good economically speaking. They are trains that pass once in a lifetime and I think it was a door that I had to open. I do not regret. It was a very good, unique experience.
Being an elite athlete, someone may be shocked that economics has an important weight.
The reality is that. There are many athletes who are among the ten or twenty best in the world, even five, who lack aid. It doesn’t happen only in my sport. There is a lack of sponsors, events, media that are interested in us. Many athletes have to work and balance their sport, professional in quotes, while in the National Team. For me, my work was that (survivors). It was my chance. In the Fencing Selection he passes, without going any further. People who work in banks, clubs, etc., who get extra money. It’s sad.
Your case is different. She didn’t fit in, she stopped training.
It was hard. People think that I ran away. Not at all. It was thought about, discussed with my coaches, teammates, family… I am leaving number one at a national level and close to the top-20 in the world, having been among the top ten, but I felt that it was time. There were no qualifying competitions for the Games yet. And we had nothing (economically). A project was going to come out, Team Spain Elite, which did not come out (it has been approved this October). We were not in ADO, we were not in anything. What do we do? Can’t you work either? There are many things that people do not know. People see a shop window and don’t know what’s behind it. And it’s hard.
If you’re on TV, even if it’s not doing sports, people know who you are. When I left, there was nothing (of aid), now doors are opening
In survivorsIn this sense, the noise generated is greater.
Logical. I think that, yes, people have realized how Spanish sport is at the sports center level. Archery, rowing, weightlifting people will tell you the same thing. I have zero sponsors, no one helps me. Fortunately, I have caught the ADO, but, when I was the tenth in the world, nobody gave me anything.
Do you take something, in sports, from the experience?
Yes. These kinds of experiences make you stronger. Above all, mentally. It has a very large psychological part. They make you value things. You have a lot of time to think, to see what things you were not doing well, to reconsider. Knowing how to share makes you a better person. And that, in sport, is basic. Knowing how to be with your colleagues, knowing your role. It has helped me a lot and I am noticing it during the lap.
“When I get out, I want to go to the Olympics and win a f…medal,” he said on the island. Now that she’s out, how close do you feel to her?
The important thing is to go step by step. Go back, train, feel good. Talking about medals, right now, is very easy. It is very easy to say that I want to be a champion, but you have to work on it from the base. Focus, train the physical and my fencing. Whether it is near, far or halfway is not the priority. The priority is to feel myself again.
The truth is that, beyond you, you can feel that medal closer than ever.
We have a very good team. We are eight in the world at the men’s sword level. We are in a moment that we have not been for a long time. You have to keep it, which is always difficult. The important thing now is that I come back. They want him to come back, to be in the team again and put him in the top four, to be able to fight for medals, that’s the reality. The important thing is for the team to qualify and to have the opportunity to get the first medal for the men’s épée. There is no fencing team that has a medal and I think that right now you can get it. We are very close and that is the long-term bet: Paris.
Enlarge
Does it bother you that you can be recognized more for the island than for sports?
No, it does not bother me. It is true that I would like more to be recognized by sport, like all athletes. I have been here for ten years and I have medals in World Cups, Mediterranean Games, European Games, European champion, runner-up in the world, etc. It’s hard, but it’s what we were talking about at the beginning of the conversation. If you don’t see the sport, if you don’t have support, nobody knows who you are. If you’re on TV, even if it’s not doing sports, people know who you are. Too easy. It doesn’t bother me because I’ve tried. I’ve been starving for three months, I’ve cured it too. I would like, going back, that it was for sports, but it doesn’t bother me that someone knows me for having done a reality.
It’s a faster track than winning medals, it seems.
There are people who have won one, two or three World medals. One, two or three European medals and now they can start talking to brands. It doesn’t seem fair to me. to me, thanks to realityMore doors have been opened for me. It’s the truth. Good or bad criticism, constructive or not, but it is spoken. Now there are people asking about the Media del Campo ranking, about a national ranking, about how I had fared… That didn’t exist before.
You can take advantage of it, right?
Yes of course. If a child has signed up for fencing to see me, he has been worth it. I do not have any doubt. If there is a happy boy with his sword at home, I have nothing more to say. That already fills me up. If we can inspire the new generations to play sports… I think a lot about how to achieve it.
And what do you think?
How to connect children to the world of high performance and make high performance fit for children. Social networks offer many possibilities. People need an icon, a superhero. People see Nadal, Alcaraz, Carolina Marín, Fernando Alonso, Lydia Valentín… That is not achieved only with sporting results. LeBron James always says that he is more than a sportsman. Everything he moves, what he transmits… Understanding that is key.