Paul McGrath: "Some people get a tattoo to celebrate a medal, but I want to wear it to the Moreneta."

GavàPaul McGrath Benito (Gavà, 2002) became the first Catalan to win a medal at the World Athletics Championships in 14 years thanks to his bronze in the final of the 20 km walk to Tokyo. The son of two teachers, his mother from Gavà and his father from Glasgow, he studies journalism, dreams of the Los Angeles Games, and passionately defends a sport, walking, that is not always understood.

— Now it's time for vacation. The last year has been very hard, just training, without...

But it was a special year. First, an Olympic debut, and a year later, a medal at the World Cup.

— Paris was incredible. Being able to participate in the Games... I was motivated beyond belief. But once they were over, a feeling of emptiness set in. What now? Thinking there were still four years left until the Los Angeles Games... My dream had always been the Olympics. But with my coach, I started to get going, finding motivation. And I had the World Championships on the horizon. I was motivated to see my rivals in Spain achieving good times. By November, I was already focused on my goal.

As the World Cup in Japan approached, did you feel stronger?

— Yes, I spent the whole of August in Font Romeu, in the French Pyrenees, training at altitude at 1,800 meters. A group of friends came and went running with me. I walked and they ran. That way I wasn't alone and they gave me energy. People saw a group of ordinary people from a distance, as if I were a cyclist. And seeing how I was doing... well, I thought maybe I could aspire to a medal. But without putting pressure on myself. If on the day of the final three rivals are stronger, you applaud and that's it. What I wanted was to know that everything that depended on me had been done well. And that's how it was. The day before the final, I felt happy.

No nerves? Can you fall asleep before a final?

— I must have slept about eight hours. I slept really well. Normally, our races are at 7 or 8 in the morning, so you get up at dawn, but this time it was at 10, so I slept a lot. At the Paris Games, on the other hand, I had no experience and was still doing things at midnight, nervous. I slept little. In Tokyo, it was the opposite. I was super happy to be at the World Championships, where I wanted to be. I felt strong. And when we arrived in Japan, two weeks before the World Championships, it was terribly hot and humid. I told the coach that in that weather I wouldn't even make it to the start! Luckily, things improved afterward, even though the humidity was 70%.

All of Spain's medals at the World Championships were won by race walking. Did you feel pressure from the Federation?

— No, you put the pressure on yourself. In the meetings, it was said that there was a lot of confidence in race walking, but that was normal given the previous results. And on the very first day, Maria Pérez won a gold medal, something that motivated us. Race walking, in Catalonia and Spain, has always yielded great results. And it seems we're obliged to perform, and even more so now, in difficult times for our sport, as its future at the Games is being debated.

Being in Tokyo, so far away, was your family able to accompany you?

— I invited one of my sisters, who acts as my secretary and helps me with everything. I gave her this gift to thank her for what she does for me. The next European Championships, in 2026, will be in Birmingham, and it will be different. She'll come to support me with my Scottish and Irish family. I'm a lucky guy. I have a supportive family who has always been there for me.

You have to tell us your family story...

— My mother won a scholarship and went to Glasgow as a teacher. And there she met my father, a teacher. My father's family is a typical Scottish family from Glasgow with Irish roots. A family of many siblings, close-knit, who have worked hard because they left Ireland seeking a new life. His father agreed to come and live near Barcelona. I understand my mother: I love Glasgow, but it's very cold. From my father, I inherited my passion for Celtic Glasgow. It's the best stadium in the world. The other day I went to see Barça-Real Sociedad, and the way you experience it is different. At Celtic's ground, people sing and cheer with their hearts. We follow Celtic so much that my uncles, when we go to see them, don't always want to give us their membership cards because they don't want to miss a single game.

Why didn't you bet on football?

— I tried, but I wasn't good enough. I saw clearly that I wouldn't be the next Ronaldinho. As a child, I would go to Gavà matches with my father when they had a good team, not like now. And I played at school. But my mother didn't like the sometimes violent atmosphere in youth football, so she told me to sign up for athletics. The first few days I practiced different disciplines and did race walking; without knowing much about the subject, I already finished fifth. And that changed my perspective. I started watching videos on YouTube, training... My first successes came in the Catalan championship. My friends were already clear that this would be my life when I stopped playing football for fear of injury.

The mother had a good eye...

— Credit to him! And athletics is beautiful. It doesn't matter if you're tall, short, thin, or fat... You have a sport you can do, whether it's sprinting, endurance, throwing...

Is race walking countercultural? Some people don't want it on the Olympic program because they say it's hard to keep up for so many hours...

— There's a sort of campaign against race walking. They say it's not attractive because of television. As if it were all about making money, about ratings. Not everything should be like that. If it were about ratings, only football would be watched. Well, not everything. The ratings for a Girona-Espanyol match are good, but according to some, not good enough. I'm against it. Besides, a 35 km race can be exciting. Look at my finish. A Japanese man, who's the best at the moment, is leading and makes the third mistake: he has to stop. And I find myself in the lead. But I have two. warnings to go too fast and not respect the technique. I decide not to risk it, and the Brazilian and the Chinese overtake me. It was very exciting. How exciting it can be to see Pogačar attacking 100 km from the end of the World Cycling Championships... But, equally, I think that instead of complaining, we have to come up with solutions. For example: we need the chip that allows technology to detect the riders' errors. To know for sure that both feet don't touch the ground at the same time, not to depend on the gaze of a referee, who may have been distracted. We must do more kilometers inside the stadium and races in beautiful settings. We must aspire to have more visibility, beyond the Games every four years. Sometimes it seems that only the money matters, it's sad. I don't care about them; I want to do what makes me happy.

The march...and journalism, since you're studying it.

— I started doing advertising and public relations because a friend was doing it... But I like sports. I want to dedicate myself to something related to sports. And I thought about journalism.

You promised that if you won a medal, you'd go from Gavà to Montserrat to thank the Black Madonna. Have you done it yet?

— Not yet, we'll have to get organized. I'll go on foot with friends, but I don't rule out running alone someday. Some people cut their hair or get tattoos to celebrate a medal. I'll take her to the Moreneta, which I strongly believe in.