"The most iconic photograph of Barcelona '92 is of a sport we can't play in the city."
The young jumper Max Liñan competes in the European Championships with the dream of becoming an Olympian in a discipline that barely has any facilities.
Sant Cugat del VallèsIt's surely the most iconic photograph of the 1992 Olympic Games: a diver flying over the sky of Barcelona, in the Montjuïc municipal swimming pool. When the divers in the platform competition made a jump, the city was behind them. Catalan diver, the young Max Liñan (Barcelona, 2005), who is training at the CAR in Madrid to pursue his dream: to be an Olympian in 2028 in Los Angeles. I was watching, and I asked to try it. When the family and I returned to Barcelona, I was able to enter the CAR in Sant Cugat through Mar Rovira, the technical director. There's an indoor facility with a platform and diving boards of different heights. The other place where it should have been possible is at the Barcelona Games venue, the Montjuïc swimming pool, but "it's no longer used for diving." Seen by the world, it's incredible. "When you're up there and you see the city... it's impressive," says Max, who once took his mother to the ten-meter platform. "She was impressed. She didn't jump, of course," he recalls.
Max wishes Catalonia had more facilities, as it could be a school. "It's difficult for the little ones to like a sport they can't practice. We're waiting for the diving pool at CN Barcelona to be finished so the level can be raised even further, but it seems like it's a long time coming," says the diver linked to this club, where boys and girls are trained on trampoline and then must go to the CAR if they have the quality and want to be divers. Some clubs, such as Joan Peregrino in Hostafrancs or CN Barcelona itself, train boys and girls on trampoline, but don't have the facilities to allow them to compete at the top level. Liñan, then, moved to the CAR in Sant Cugat when he began to stand out, at a time when he could at least jump at Montjuïc during the summer.
Max became the first Catalan trampoline diver to participate in a World Championship in this spectacular discipline in 2024 in Doha (Qatar). Now he's competing in the European Championships this weekend in Antalya, Turkey. And on July 26th, he'll also be heading to the World Championships in Singapore. "This year I've changed my specialty, and I really feel very comfortable. Initially, I intended to do both: platform, which is what I'd done until now, and trampoline. But as the season progressed, I started to train much better on the trampoline. In fact, the coaching staff was already planning on letting me take over," he explains.
Imitating the historic feat of Antoni Tort and Santiago Ulió
Liñan started on the platform, the cement surface for jumps of more than ten meters, but now he competes on the slightly lower wooden springboard, with jumps of three or one meters. A short but more technical jump. And he does it in synchronized pairs with Madrid native Juan Pablo Cortés. "Last year, we came within one point of a medal at the European Championships in Belgrade in the ten-meter synchronized platform. It was frustrating. So now we're aiming for medals despite it being a new discipline. Juan Pablo and I understand each other. We live together and coordinate well, which is important, since we spend many hours working together."
Does it make a difference whether we jump from ten meters or three meters? "The ten meters are more mentally complicated. The three meters require more technique. Now that I've had the opportunity to try both disciplines, I feel much more comfortable on the trampoline. As a child, it was common to try both disciplines. The normal process is that over the years, divers move from the platform to the trampoline, and I did it very young." In the pool or at the gym, taking care of himself and using gymnastics techniques for turns and coordination. "The positions must be very straight, and all this position work is done with a gymnastics physical trainer," he explains. And without stopping his studies in data engineering. "Sometimes it's difficult to combine it all, but it's a sacrifice that must be made," he says.
Max's dream is to be an Olympian in 2028 in Los Angeles, imitating the feat of Antoni Tort and Santiago Ulió, the first Catalan divers to participate in the Olympic Games in 1924 in Paris. "I'll be competing in the Olympic cycle on the individual and synchronized three-meter springboard. A year ago, I watched the Paris Games and thought, 'I have to be there no matter what,'" he concludes.