Last Wednesday, July 31, José “Maligno” Torres Gil won the gold medal in BMX Freestyle at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and this afternoon he gave a press conference at CeNARD, accompanied by the Secretary of Tourism, Environment and Sports of the Nation, Daniel Scioli, surrounded by athletes from different sports disciplines.
“I still don’t understand everything this means. I am proud and surprised at the same time, we don’t understand the achievement. The Olympic medal was always a dream, not a plan. Although we prepared very hard for a long time, when I qualified for the finals I wasn’t satisfied with that, because athletes are warriors and we always want more,” said “Maligno” Torres, who received a hug from Sivio Velo, historic player of Los Murciélagos and symbol of Paralympic sport, during the conference, amid applause and many words of recognition; and public congratulations from hammer thrower Ignacio Carballo, accompanied by the CENARD resident athletes.
During the match, the Olympic champion, who took first place in the competition with 94.82 points, said, along with his coach Maximiliano Benadía: “We knew that winning the gold medal was very difficult and we are happy because this achievement in some way supports all the Argentine athletes who are still competing. This is the best, but it doesn’t end here, we want to keep giving everything to arrive in good shape for the 2028 Los Angeles Games.”
He then thanked the large number of greetings and congratulations he received on social media, especially from Lionel Messi: “I haven’t had time to stop and respond yet. I’m very grateful to many people, even football figures like Julián Álvarez, Paulo Dybala and Messi himself wrote to me; the fact that he knows I exist is already something to be thankful for.”
Torres, 29, nicknamed “Maligno” for his fun personality, emerged among the elite of this sport in 2009 when he competed in several X Games in the United States and 10 years later he was excited about participating in the Tokyo 2020 Games, which he ultimately could not qualify for due to an injury.
“In a way, it is revenge for having missed out on Tokyo. At that time, I was incredible. I was in the top 12 and soon after arriving, I got injured. I lost three World Cups that were worth a lot of points and I was left without the Games. At first it was very frustrating but then it served as motivation for everything that came later,” added “Maligno” in conversation with the website of the National Sports Secretariat.
But in 2023 he won the gold medal at the traditional X Games (he was the first Argentine to achieve this). That year he also finished ninth at the Glasgow World Championships, was champion at the Pan American Games and qualified for Paris 2024.
“I hope Las Leonas or some of the other Argentine athletes who still have a chance of winning a medal win. If so, I won’t have to go back to Paris to carry the flag at the closing ceremony,” she said with a smile at the end of the press conference that took place in the CeNARD hotel lounge, where she often stayed while waiting for a competition.
