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She was the coach of the Spanish artistic swimming team between 1997 and 2012 until she was dismissed.
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Then 15 former swimmers reported harassment and bad sports practices by their former coach.
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After working in Catalan politics and coaching several countries, he has led the Chinese team to Olympic gold
The Spanish artistic swimming returned to the Olympic podium in Paris 2024 12 years later winning a bronzeonly behind the Americans (silver) and the Chinese (gold). Now there is the duet routine where the couples will fight again for the medals. And among all this, one name has been heard again, that of Anna Tarresnow Coach of the Chinese artistic swimming team after having been the Spanish national team coach between 1997 and 2012, the year in which the Spanish Swimming Federation dismissed her following a complaint by 15 former national team swimmers.
Gemma Mengual assures that she withdrew because of Ana Tarrés
His controversial departure from the Spanish team
The sportswomen They reported bad practices in training, stating that they faced unsportsmanlike methods and harassment, generating great psychological pressure on them. “Get out of the water, fat girl. Go see a psychologist.”“Don’t come here to act tight if you’ve fucked everything that moves”, “Don’t be so happy, the merits are not yours, you’ve just been lucky to get here at this moment”, or “You don’t deserve this medal, you haven’t done anything to get it. It’s for my daughter, who’s really excited”, are some of the comments that the former swimmers pointed out about what Tarrés supposedly told them in training.
Tarrés, who was terminated three months before the end of your contractclaimed that it was all a strategy by the president of the Federation to fire her due to personal disputes. The coach filed a complaint for unfair dismissal and won the lawsuit, being compensated with 383,000 euros. While at the head of the Spanish artistic swimming team, then called synchronized, she managed to four Olympic medals and 52 metals in total with the sum of World Cups and European Championships.
Carbonell and Mengual, the target of their criticism
Ona Carbonell She has been the target of criticism from Tarrés on occasion, as has Gemma Mengual. In 2023, Carbonell said in an interview with El País that the legacy of her former coach in the Spanish swimming world was undeniable and that she had learned a lot from her, “but not everything was good. When you lead a group of women, some of them minors, you have such absolute control and power that you have to be very careful. For me the method was not adequate. I will never complain about the demand, but I have seen colleagues suffer and have mental health problems. I find it intolerable.”.
Gemma Mengual She also spoke after Tarrés’ departure, especially about her return to the team after becoming a mother. “Competing made me happy. “Coming up against a wall didn’t make up for it. It made me feel bad.”she said in 2013. “I didn’t find the support I thought I would find when I decided to return to the pool” and that caused her retirement from the sport. “I kept quiet out of respect for my teammates,” who were preparing for the London Olympics, which she thought she could have easily achieved. “I was very controlled, I had to ask permission for everything, I was part of the dynamic and accepted it, but that doesn’t mean I agreed,” he admits.
His career to training the Chinese
After leaving the Federation she has continued to be involved in artistic swimming. In 2014 She was signed by the French team as an advisor on team routines to put together the choreographies for the 2015 World Championships in Kazan. That same year she also served as advisor for the Ukrainian team in team and duo routines ahead of the 2016 Rio Olympics.
After working with the Ukrainians he began to train the chinese duo formed by the sisters Tinting and Wenwen Jiang, whom he managed to place as the best in the country by taking them to the World Championships in Budapest where they won silver. With his success, he joined the part of the chinese team with which he has achieved gold at the Paris Olympics, a feat they hope to repeat in their duo routine these days.
“At work I am a very demanding person with myself and with others.because I believe that if you dedicate yourself to elite sport it is to reach the top and that can only be achieved with work, effort and sacrifice,” she explained in an interview with El Español. In it she also said that in her private life everything was very different. “I love having fun. I am very open and sociable and I am passionate about traveling and getting to know new cultures.”
His political side
In recent years she has also been involved in the world of politics. Graduated in Anglo-Germanic Philology, she was part of the JuntsxCat list after running for the 2017 Catalan parliamentary elections on the list headed by Carles Puigdemont. He was Member of Parliament between 2018 and 2020 after declaring himself an independence supporter, pro-Catalan and nationalist in an ABC interview.
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