Elena Congost: “We will go through judicial means to recover the medal that I won and was stolen”
It’s been a month and a half since Elena Congost went from glory to drama in a matter of minutes in the Paris Paralympic Games. I had just gotten the bronze in the marathon event together with his guide Mia Carol but they were disqualified. He had almost staggered to the finish line and 10 meters from it, he was about to fall due to cramps. The rope that united them -Congost suffers from an atrophy of the optic nerve that impairs his sight- It was released for a few seconds when Elena helped him so he didn’t fall to the ground. According to article 7.9 of World Para Athletics, the rope can never be released.
“The error is that this rule is not interpretedthe context in which it happens is not looked at. They judged me as the person who lets go of the rope to make some kind of trap,” he said. laments Congost on the set of MARCA la Diferenciawhich has returned to the grid on Wednesdays on MARCA’s YouTube channel and streaming on our website at 12:00 p.m. At first he even thought about burning the damn rope.
Elena Congost helps her guide at the finish line of the Paris Games.
His image went around the world. The New York Times, the BBC and Le Monde were some of the international media that echoed the injustice. “It no longer hurts because we have received so much love that it soothes any wound.but I do still have the feeling that something I had earned has been stolen from me and, furthermore, due to a very unfair situation. At no time was there any benefit nor do we alter the result of the test,” insists the marathon runner and Iberdrola ambassador.
I still have the feeling that something I had earned has been stolen from me and, furthermore, due to a very unfair situation
The Catalan, mother of four childrenrevealed that His guide asked him to slow down from kilometer 30 and they did so to “protect the medal”. They had plenty of margin, the Japanese Misato Michishita, fourth, was more than three minutes behind. After knowing the disqualification “There was no consolation, we had a feeling of total emptiness and disbelief.”recalls the athlete who during her stay at the CAR in San Cugat shared a room with Mireia Belmonte more than a decade ago.
More impact than his gold in Rio 2016
Arlet and Abril, her daughters aged 6 and 4, were in Paris with her husband. “The first question they asked me was why have you been punished for helping Mia. That’s where everything throws you off because as a mother, what you want to teach your children, when they go to play sports or at school, is that if someone needs help you have to give it to them or if they need help they have to ask for it. They didn’t understand and it’s normal that they don’t understand it. I explained to them that sometimes you have to break a rule because that’s what’s right. If to help you have to stop earning something, then maybe that’s what you have to do.”he insists. For her, that bronze was not just a medal, it meant returning after motherhood and after many personal and out-of-pocket sacrifices (she did not have a scholarship) to get there.
Elena Congost, Paralympic marathon champion in Rio 2016
He support It came from all areas and levels of sport. The messages of Pau Gasol o Kilian Jornet They surprised him among so much avalanche. “There has been much more impact than when I won gold in Rio and in part it is also very nice because in the end Sport goes beyond medals. We athletes have the responsibility of transmitting values,” he recalls.
Hope to recover the bronze
Your case is in the hands of the lawyer Jean Louis Dupont, expert in European Law and who revolutionized transfers in football with the Bosman Case. It was he who He contacted Elena, through a journalist from MARCA, who offered his help for free.. “He wanted to do it from the heart because it was a case that touched him. “He told me that I had won from minute zero and filled me with hope.”remember.
Elena Congost, Paralympic marathon champion in Rio 2016
Dupont told me that I had won from minute zero and filled me with hope
On September 25, they presented a friendly letter to the International Paralympic Committee, the Olympic Committee, the Paris 2024 Organizing Committee and the French Minister of Sports. claiming bronze for Congost who had won on the asphalt. The deadline expired on Sunday and only the IOC has responded saying that that decision is not in its hands. The rest of the organizations have ignored the request. “If they don’t give answer, we will go through judicial means. We will go to the end. What I want is to get what I have earned and that everyone has seen that it is an injustice,” he repeats.
The Spanish Paralympic Committee and the CSD have granted him the scholarship corresponding to the medal they took from him. “I am very grateful, but if there is no medal there is also no prize that comes with it. In addition to the romantic part of having it we have run out of 30,000 euroswhich was the same amount they paid me for my gold in Rio,” he explains.
Elena Congost, Paralympic marathon champion in Rio 2016
Elena, who started competing in cross country as a child with her father always nearby, competed in her fifth Games in Paris and He is clear that he wants to be in Los Angeles 2028. “I have to get rid of the thorn that I have left. They say that if things don’t end well, it means they haven’t ended,” he says, smiling. Just as his fight to recover a medal he won without cheating hasn’t ended. “My coach is hoping that one day they’ll give it to us so he can go to take a photo at the Eiffel Tower or wherever, or at the Champs Elysées,” he says smiling. Because that moment, the one with the photo with the medal, has also been deprived.
