How about handball?
Casually. I belong to a family of Andosilla workers. A humble house, although we have never missed anything. Parents weren't athletes. My brother started playing football, like all the boys, and for the girls there was nothing. But people from the village created a handball team when I was 11 years old, and I also signed up with all my friends. That's how it all started.
What I remember is that we lost all matches, a lot, 40-3 and so on. All the groups were from the Region of Pamplona, or from Estella, and we were the only ones from the Ribera, along with those from Mendavia. With them we had a lot of competition, because we were from the Ribera, and we were very bad one and the other. But then handball wasn't that important. There were studies in the middle, and the handball spent time out of school.

And all of a sudden, Itxako.
My Andosilla coach was proposed to go to Itxako to train the second cadet team. And he asked two of the people if we wanted to go with him. And how did we say no! Itxaco was then called Super Itxako. He was the best team in the honor division, played the Champions League... It was a big team, and even outside of a country, it had a huge budget. In Estella they were very proud of their handball team. There everything was yellow, everything was from Itxako. And of course, when they called me to train with them, I had a really bad time. What a shame! The level difference was very large, it was younger... On Wednesdays they called me by phone and that disgust! But how are you going to say no to Itxaco? When I played the first game with Itxaco, I had to make a foul. It was no more than throwing the ball forward, but when I raised my arm the referee pulled the beep and with nervousness the ball went backwards. And of course, we lost ownership. That shame...

But that tide of Estella ended.
The team itself disappeared. We saw the bubble explode. The crisis came, there was no money to pay the players, the club lasted another year, but accumulating debts... The players left and I was the second coach at the time called me saying they needed a pivot O Porkidon. I was a young group, recently promoted to the Honor Division, and I went there blindly. I had no idea where I was going! But I had two options. To see what's left in Estella or fly away.

And then I went from O Porriño to Valladolid. I had two hard lesions on my knees, and the second was a turning point. I said, here you are in your comfort zone. It is comfortable, everything is simple, even without having to give the best of you, you have guaranteed your place. You need a change. He wanted to ask me for more. And because Aula Valladolid coach was our coach of the Spanish junior team, I asked him directly if they needed a pivot in Valladolid. And I left there.

It was two very nice years. He was semi-professional, he played handball, but he also went to college. I started the studies of Social Worker in Pamplona, and when I was in Galicia I continued studying as non-face-to-face, but it was harder. In Valladolid, I continued with the classes again, and although I needed eight years, I finished my studies. And that life I liked.

But it cannot stay there either. You went back in search of something else to Euskal
Herria… He continued what he had to last. It's OK to live like this, but it can't be forever. And when I was called from Bera Bera, I had no question. The referents of childhood for us were Itxako and Bera Bera. The only team, despite the crisis, was San Sebastian, who kept the best team in difficult times. It's the team that offers the most dignified wages, and that has merit, because in times of crisis, the best players left out, and what were we? Young girls. And while in the other groups they offered five dollars, Bera Bera maintained his professionalism. Economic and structural professionalism. It's a referent. the one who plays in Europe, the one who plays the Champions... The level of demand is also much higher in return, of course.

Coming here was to leave the comfort and ask for more effort. The first few months I had a really bad time. It's always hard to approach new phases, to adapt to the place, to meet people. But also my body wasn't used to that much physical wood. What a player is asked for here is not asked anywhere else. And I told him before that I don't like to run! Well, look, now I know all the corners of Anoeta. Back, I was always tired. In the morning training, in the afternoon training and I was tired. My body was changing, and now I'm at that rate. And of course, the prize is also moderate: Play in Europe, compete to win all national titles...

Pressure also depends, doesn't it?
Yes, both as a team and as a player. He only expects a victory from Bera. Always. Regulating excellence requires a great deal of effort. And as a player, it's not easy to make a hole in the team. At first we were two pivots. Yunis Camejo and I. And then there came also Judith Sans, who had already been in a group. And I thought, "Bye. You're not going to play for a minute." It also made me angry that a journalist asked me how I lived to be the “third pivot.” I realized that player changes were often the last option, but I thought the coach was choosing at that particular moment the characteristics of one or the other player, I didn't think about what I would be. I didn't feel the competition like that. And I remember that that journalist, who didn't know anything about handball, gave me pain. But then I also thought, “I will win my place.” And so it did.

How do you get that confidence with so much pressure on your shoulders?
I've always had a lot of confidence in myself. I'm very hardworking. Very constant and multidisciplinary. I always think that my time will come and I will be ready to take advantage of it. This is also the case in life. Good and bad things will happen to you, and all that will be in your hands is deciding what your attitude is. It goes without saying that I have experienced very bad moments on this journey, and that I have filled a lot of tears. But I've always believed that something good was going to come. Plus, I like that feeling of not knowing what's going to come. It has its grace. Especially if you don't regret not having tried. I know that I have tried, that I have tried to do my best, and I believe that the time will come to demonstrate what needs to be demonstrated. With that belief, I have always made progress, and that has happened. When I look back now I only remember good things, that's also true. I know there have been very hard times, but I do not remember them more intensely. They blur me. Sometimes I'm training and I realize I'm not well, and I say it to myself. “Tomorrow you won’t remember you! Change your face!”

Now, on the contrary, you've been told to stop your body and your mind.
More heads! The things I have now give me more illusion than handball itself. My partner and I have come to live in Ataun, we are arranging this old house, we have the garden... I get to Ataun and I get happy. The peace of this creek does me well. And in what to deny me, I'm up to 30 years old, and the body perceives it, for example, on trips. I used to do twelve hours on the bus today and another twelve hours tomorrow. And now I feel tiredness. Injuries also make me more and more afraid. Every time we start the season, all I ask is that. It doesn't hurt. I don't feel so fresh. I find less energy to deal with negative things. And I realize that other things give me strength. And the interior asks me for a change of life.
I also find it more difficult to meet the requirements. In addition to training, in summer, for example, we have to take care of them. They're contracts from August to May and we don't get any money for two months, but we run, we do exercises and we take care of what we eat, as if we were paid. And then you're going to ask the bank for a mortgage to buy a house, and when you're asked for the document of your career, you're ashamed. We have paid very little. It is said that we are professionals, but there are professionals and professionals. Women are mileurists, at best. And we don't have unions, we can't negotiate. We tried to ask for a few minimums, but so far. We're very used to accepting almost anything. There's no one to protect us. Neither business nor administration.

We're giving up on a normal career in handball, with other options. Most of us have studies. I'm a social worker. Others are nurses, physiotherapists… And this is very nice, but it cannot be long. It's hard to save money. At age 20, it's not a problem, and at age 25, it's not a problem. But you're 30 years old and you've never worked on what you've learned. What is your work experience? I've played in hand ball. How? Well, of course, I've worked in hand ball. People don't understand. It's not a job for people. And for us, yes. Badly paid? With unfavourable conditions? Yes, but it's work.

Keeping the motivation to be at such a high level needs to be tough.
The sacrifice is great and the prize is not moderate. No visibility. We are only aware of what we do and what surrounds us. There is nothing else to do with the reception that was made to us in the town hall when we won the Queen’s Cup. We are not footballers and we are women. We are not in the newspapers or on television. People don't know us on the street. Not in San Sebastian, not in Andosilla or in Ataun. And I'm very happy with that, but it shouldn't be that way. And we always hear the same thing: the men's game is more spectacular, they jump more... The woman is much nicer! Nothing to do with it. We are much better tactically and the parties are more interesting. But to say that male sport is better, it does not need to be justified or argued. That's it and that's it. We all have interiorized. Sport and out of sport.

Then they are surprised because there is no female gambler from a certain age. There are men, first of all, because they earn a lot more. And on the other hand, because, for example, handball is compatible with a parenthood project. There are many professional handball players with children, they're parents. In the Nordic leagues, for example, motherhood is part of sports life. They agree to become pregnant, they continue to receive a salary and put them in tremendous technical means for physical recovery. They take care of children during training, they can take children when they have concentrations with the selection. There are players of my age who in Norway have two children and play at the highest level, without surprising anyone. Here we are in light years of this. Do we take care of your child? Have we gone crazy?

People have become angry because you're happy and you haven't shed tears.
There are many factors that have come together and I have decided to leave it. No sadness. It's not for maternity, not for money, not for anything. It was a very nice stage, but I feel it is over. If I had been at the same level of illusion I would have followed. The point is that now I am happy with something else. And I want to spend time on life. I want to find work. Being a social worker. Or work anywhere else. In a supermarket or anywhere else. I felt it was time to honour and I am happy with the decision taken. Because I have made the decision and I have made it when I wanted it. I could have had one more year of contract signed and continue with less desire... But I don't want to go on and on. So far!
Of course it's hard to leave behind what your life has been. I have already said this in previous years: “I leave it this year, I leave it this year...” I've been saying that for eight years. But it was time to say goodbye and I didn't want it. So far I haven't wanted it, and now I do. That is the way things are! I have experienced very nice situations, I have met wonderful people... I've been happy. And I think I'm still happy.