“It was in Macau, in 2018. I was training to debut in the Red Bull series of high jumps. There I had a 27-meter springboard and I was practicing a new exercise, four reverse somersaults. I jumped and, just coming out, I hit my hand on the platform, I lost control, I fell face down into the water and was unconscious for almost 15 minutes. They had to revive me with shovels. Then I spent many sleepless nights, thinking about the jumps, thinking about that jump.”
Speaks Spanish Carlos Gimeno from the trauma of his career, the accident that almost retired him before he even started. How did she get over it? What was he doing in Macao? And, above all, a 27-meter springboard?
Yes, yes, 27 meters. High jumps, before crazy, a thing of senselessness, are now one more specialty of the World Swimming Championships that are being held these days in Fukuoka. With the financial support of the Red Bull series -which previously stopped in Bilbao-, for 10 years the discipline has become more professional and there are already a dozen jumpers from all over the world who live from what they do in the air. One of them is Gimeno, from Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, who did three and 10 meter springboard jumps in his youth, left it to focus on his studies -Social Work- and returned, but already at heights.
In 2015 Gimeno became the first and only Spaniard in a World Cup, but then he wanted to gain a foothold in the Red Bull World Series. His goal was to rub shoulders with the best, show you could do original moves, earn enough to do it. He was in it when he suffered the accident that almost cost him his life.
Gimeno is now one of the favorites for the medal in the World Cup final to be held on Thursday the 27th (Tuesday the 25th will be the previous rounds) thanks to his recent results. In the European past he could only be seventh, but in the World Cup in the United States in May he finished second and, therefore, he is second in the world ranking. His rivals will be the British Gary Huntabsolute legend of the heights, the Romanians Constantin Popovici y Catalin-Petru Preda and the mexican Jonathan Paredes. In the female category, she will compete Charlotte Gonzalezthe second Spanish in history after Celia Fernandez, penultimate in 2019.