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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Formentera windsurfer Mateo Sanz announces retirement after Tokyo 2020 Olympic title

Sanz says that the decision "was already in my head before going to the Olympic Games"

Mateo Sanz puts an end to his sports career. “What I have always enjoyed, has begun to be painful,” said Sanz in his social networks, where he has communicated his decision.

The young windsurfer from Formentera has explained to Diario de Ibiza that “it has not been a decision taken overnight”, but that “ I had it in my head before going to Tokyo“. “I had been suffering from some pain in my lower back for a year and a half. At the beginning of this year I had an MRI scan and they detected that I had a hernia and a protrusion”, which led him to consider giving up top-level competition to preserve his “long-term health”.

Mateo Sanz’s track record is extensive. He managed to get to the top of the world ranking. In Rio 2016, with “problems at the beginning of the competition”, Sanz finished in fourteenth place. A year later, in Enoshima (Japan), he was runner-up in the world windsurfing RS:X class. This summer, Sanz returned to participate in an Olympic event, in Tokyo 2020, where he secured eighth position, which gave him a well-deserved Olympic title. Sanz thus became the first person from Formentera to receive this recognition. Although he admits that he has “a bittersweet taste” for not having won the medal.

But in general terms, Mateo Sanz says he is happy with his sports career, which has lasted 18 years . “I don’t hold anything against myself. I leave very calm with everything I have achieved and very happy,” said Sanz.

For the full article, please visit Diario de Ibiza website here.

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