The Catalan Iris Tió touches the sky in Paris
The Barcelonian wins the gold medal at the European Swimming Championships
The Catalan Iris Tió has broken the curse and made the Spanish anthem sound for the first time at the Paris Europeans by winning gold this Tuesday morning in the artistic swimming technical solo final. Tió, who achieved a score of 263.6250 units, was only two tenths of a point ahead of the Belarusian Vasilina Khandoixka, gold in the French capital in the free routine, who had to settle for the silver medal on this occasion, with a mark of 263.3817. The German Klara Bleyer completed the podium, achieving third place with a total of 258.0400 points. The song that the Barcelona native used to win at the Parisian pool was Mio Cristo piange diamanti, one of the hits from Lux, Rosalía's latest album.
In the afternoon, the Spanish team achieved another medal, in this case silver, in the team technical final. The competition was won by the Russian team, with 303.2467 points, 6.8168 more than Spain (296.4299), while the bronze medal went to the Italian swimmers (284.6725).
"I am very happy with this medal. I have been focused on all the technical elements. I felt very good. The first sensations are very good. This song excites me a lot and the choreography too. I prepared it with Gemma Mengual. Andrea Fuentes has also helped me. I have the best coaches in the world. They help me a lot and thanks to them I can be a champion," Tió declared after climbing to the top of the podium in the French capital.
With this gold from Tió, who already had two silvers and a bronze in these championships, the Spanish artistic swimming team has accumulated six medals at the European Championships in Paris. In fact, the victory comes just after a stir, as this Monday the Spanish swimmer Alisa Ojogina accused the Russian team, winner of the free routine final, of copying parts of the Spanish team's routine, which came in second place, in a social media message.
Accusations of plagiarism against the Russian team
"I don't usually get involved in these conflicts, but today I will, and how I will. As a half Russian-half Spanish person, I have always supported both countries. I was one of the few people who was happy about their return to competition, because these girls are not to blame for what is happening with their government," she said on her Instagram account.
However, regarding what she claims was plagiarism, she explained: "I felt honor and pride in saying that a part of me is Russian. Today I have no words." "I would like to ask them what went through their minds when they made this decision. Do you really value a gold medal so much that you don't care how you win it? By copying the country that is under you? Is this the way? Stealing an idea?", Ojogina added.
On this occasion, Spanish artistic swimming had to settle for a silver medal, the third, at the European Championships in Paris. The Spanish team, made up of Cristina Arámbula, Txell Ferré, Marina García, Mireia Hernández, Aurora Lázaro, Lilou Lluís, Alisa Ojogina, and Sara Saldaña, finished 2.6805 units behind Russia. Now, the curse has finally been broken and the team has won gold, but still with a bittersweet taste from the Russian victory in this category, which they consider unfair: "We hope they will turn the situation around and realize that what they have done is neither fair, nor ethical, nor worthy of celebration or achieving a victory," Ojogina requested.