From a painful fifteen-month nightmare to an unexpected feat

BarcelonaThe Endesa Women's League kicked off this weekend with three Catalan teams competing. The competition will be very special for Helena Oma, who a few days ago was crowned champion of the LF Endesa Super Cup with Casademont Zaragoza. The player, who played nine minutes in the win against Ensino on Sunday, overcame a serious injury that kept her off the court for over a year. "Going through such a serious injury has been tough. It's been many months, exactly fifteen, of being in the gym every day. I've gone through tough times, coming home crying because things weren't going well, because I saw that everything was getting harder, but that's the path of an injury. I think the severity of the injury doesn't matter, it doesn't matter if it's equally up and down. The key is to set small goals and keep working with discipline because there are many days when you're the first one who doesn't feel like training," she says.

Oma has become an inspiration for many young players. "I don't realize I'm a role model. It's true that I've been playing professional basketball for many years and that we're doing well at Casademont Zaragoza. I think we're on the right track. And tomorrow, when I stop playing basketball, I hope I find someone who says they want to play like Helena Oma," explains the Catalan.

Oma played five minutes of the final against Valencia Basket, the heavy favorite for the title. "We gave our best performance, and our defensive skills made the difference. We played without fear," summarized the Catalan, who will also compete in the Euroleague this season with Casademont Zaragoza. Her debut will be this Wednesday on the Basket Landes court.

Oma is one of the founders of Agua y Jardín, a 3x3 team that's making waves. "3x3 is a way for me to express myself as a player. The fact that it's played outdoors and in the summer gives it a different atmosphere. It's a sport that's evolving a lot, and that's why I also decided to create a 3x3 club. The goal is to give players the opportunity to have another outlet and specialize in 3x. They don't have to think about anything, they don't have to pay anything, and they just want to have fun playing basketball," she explains.

"What I like about 3x3 is the team spirit, which makes it much more fun. It's a different discipline than 5x5 because of the dynamics, the aggression, and the pace. One of my best memories is the 3x3 we played on Passeig de Gràcia in Barcelona, ​​which was incredible," he says.

No chess partners

"I'm a person who has always loved sports: I've done swimming, athletics, hip-hop, among others. But when I was little, what caught my attention was playing chess. Until I ran out of teammates to compete with because everyone else was quitting. That's when basketball came along, and, like my thing, my there, and, like my there, my there, my there, my to my me, I went. I signed up. I was only eight years old, but that choice has brought me here," she analyzes.

The life of the Terrassa player is full of adversity, but she has always overcome it. "Due to life's circumstances, I matured very quickly; but I take it normally. In fact, it's my people who remind me that I'm a professional athlete and that I've managed to go far. They must tell me that, they've lived through the whole rise by my side and know everything I've had to go through and I'm barely aware of it," she concludes.