“I have always wanted to be able to give back to my country in an Olympic Games everything that Spain has made me feel representing it around the world and achieving success,” said Lucía Martín-Portugués in a letter after losing in her debut in Paris 2024 against the Hungarian Anna Marton. The Spaniard, a 33-year-old amateur athlete, arrived at her first Olympic Games with the option of a podium in sabre fencing, after the eight international medals she has recently won, and now she has had to write a letter to protect herself from the fierce criticism received through social networks.
This unfortunate episode demonstrates the bitter face of amateur sport and the immaturity of the public on social networks. Lack of respect and contextualization when an elite athlete, fourth in the world ranking, has to write a disheartening letter repeating her love for her country, her sport and that she has left everything with her saber, while recalling the successes she has had lately.
His concerns, moreover, recall the fragility of this type of non-professional athletes when their scholarship income depends on results. A short-termism that has placed him in the firing line because he does not know if he will be able to count on sufficient budget to continue competing.
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Together with the entire fencing team, known as “the sabre girls”, Martín-Portugués has elevated national fencing to something never seen before in the history of Spain. Just before the Olympic Games, they won a team bronze at the Europeans in Basel (Switzerland).
“Many spectators have become fencing professionals. They have been judging my sporting level and some even the university career I study (dentistry) for my future retirement without knowing me,” the fencer has commented on her social networks. In addition, she criticized that people have judged her negatively and have not been happy for everything achieved for Spain in everything that has to do with the Olympic cycle.
What is clear is that athletes like Martín-Portugués, little known to the general public, are judged by fans of the Games, without thinking about the athlete and without differentiating a bad day, as the fencer may have had or a bad year and make a respectful criticism without criticizing the person, because as Lucía Martín Portugúes says, “behind the screens there are people”.
