After 1:00 a.m. on Thursday, in the early morning and still with emotions running high after the six medals at the European Championships in Paris (one gold), Iris Tió (Barcelona, 23 years old) led the Spanish delegation at El Prat. Smiling, proud, she spoke to the media and went with her grandmother to her home in Barcelona, a haven of peace where she can see the whole city. To sleep. She neither opened her phone nor responded to messages on her social networks. She had breakfast with her grandmother and got to work with the interviews to explain in words what she achieved with her dances in the pool of Saint-Denis, another unforgettable memory for her already extensive career.
Read more Trump will be able to intervene militarily in eighteen Latin American countries
Did you have time to digest the six medals, the gold in technical solo, and everything experienced at this European Championships in Paris?
I haven’t been able to, I’m still excited. In fact, I wanted to rest on the plane and they didn’t let me.
Why?
We arrived and they invited us to be in the cockpit with the pilots at takeoff and landing. It was amazing. I won’t forget it, the best roller coaster of my life. Then, arriving in Barcelona and seeing the cloud of journalists, it was all very emotional. My grandmother came to pick me up and we went home because my parents couldn’t fly until this noon (yesterday). I went to sleep and had breakfast with my grandmother. This Friday I will disconnect because I need to.
How many messages have you received these days?
I have received so many WhatsApps that I haven’t even been able to look at or open one. And on Instagram, every time I entered, more than a hundred messages appeared because the app doesn’t allow showing more notifications.
What is your assessment?
I ended very happy. Individually, the good thing is that I felt very strong physically; this year we didn’t compete as much and we were able to work better on the physical part. At the World Championships in Singapore (July 2025) my legs hurt more. In Paris, we held up very well. I couldn’t sleep from the nerves, but I was clear about what I had to do. And as a team, we got very close to Russia, we intimidated them, and I had never had that feeling with them before.
Do you think crossfit was key to that physical improvement?
Yes, yes. It helped us build more muscle. Each season we did different and very complete exercises.
You make a positive assessment, Andrea Fuentes is more critical, talking about a “hard hit before triumphing.” How do you evaluate the strategy of having less difficulty in the choreographies?
We bet on that and it showed; maybe we would have placed better and could have surpassed Russia with one more point. The good thing is that we got very close, so if we had raised it a bit, we would have beaten them. You have to find the balance. You have to try these things. We have the whole summer ahead to reflect. Next year we will compete more and have feedback.
You talk about Russia. How did you experience the fact that they copied a figure from one day to the next?
They copied a unique figure, designed by us. It was a very good idea to increase the difficulty. No country had done it until Paris, so it was obvious. Not only us, all countries saw that they copied us strategically to beat us because in the preliminaries they had seen that the difference was minimal. Those were the points we lacked. It was not ethical. Russia does whatever it takes to win, they are willing to do anything. It is an honor that they copy us. But from now on we will change. We won’t show it in training. We will keep it to ourselves.
Read more Moscow manipulates the race to the Élysée
Russia does whatever it takes to win, they are willing to do anything. It was not ethical”
Sport is copying, but to make people understand, in artistic swimming you never copy from one day to the next, right?
Exactly, not in the same competition. But in the end, no one penalized them. We take comfort in the fact that we unsettled Russia and they had to go to that extreme.
Are you aware of your records, the medals you have, and how many you are from Ona Carbonell or Gemma Mengual, for example?
I haven’t read much about that. I’m interested and it’s cool to see, but what really motivates me is the gold, it’s winning as many as possible, expanding my collection. I was very excited about this one in particular because as a child they always told me I had to improve the technical part. That’s what I work for, to win golds.
You have had a media leap in the last two years with so many medals, as a soloist of the team, with the golds achieved. Do you think you keep your feet on the ground?
I have noticed it a lot this last year. And yes, I learned to keep my feet on the ground and maintain my normal life. Nothing has changed. It’s clear that I have more interviews, but I’m happy, I’ve learned to manage these things although I still have a way to go; I feel stronger, I have good representatives who take care of me. I have to get used to this life. And I’m very happy for the people who value what we do and encourage me. In this European Championship I competed thinking about all the people who help me from all over Spain and the world. I wasn’t aware, but I received messages from followers from everywhere and people stop me on the street. Competing with that is cool.
Also read
What do you think you need to improve to not lose status?
There is always room for improvement in the technical part. And in the heights. Watching the video of my gold in solo I noticed twisted or improvable movements that would have raised the score even more.
To what extent is Andrea Fuentes revolutionary?
To the highest level. When you think she can’t do anything else, you see another more revolutionary idea that she is already preparing. I love it, she pushes all possibilities to the limit. She has an unstoppable mind. And with Víctor Cano (her husband and acrobatics coach) they make an incredible pair. It’s a stream of ideas and inspiration, and yes, they inspire us all.
Has it been a catharsis?
Yes, we learned to enjoy since she arrived. Before we perhaps saw synchro differently, and now everything is different.
