Successful cases

Since the age of 12, Aurora Figueras (Banyoles, 1990) has been practicing canoeing on the calm waters of Club Natació Banyoles. A sport that made her win several awards in the Catalan Championships, the Spanish Championships, the Top10 in the European Championships and the 11th position twice in the World Championships. In addition, in her life, both the sport and the academic world are totally linked: she studies INEFC (physical activity and sports science).

Combining studies, sport and work has made her lenghten her university studies, which has helped her carry on training and competing. She trains six days a week, and even more hours during tournaments,. She must be persistent if she does not want to leave aside her studies. She admits that enjoying sport is awesome, but you need to be aware that it is also important to get a future out of a high-level competition.

Sport has been in his life since childhood. Cristian Vasquez (1996) is a swimmer from Club Natació Banyoles who has achieved national medals in at least four sporting events, and is studying Chemistry at Lindenwood University of Saint Charles, Missouri (United Sates).

In excelling in swimming, he realised that he had put to much effort and had gone too far to quit either the sport or the studies without any reason. Despite that, during specific times, he admits to have struggled combining the sport with the studies, although he says that good organization really helped. What was specially hard was getting home on Sunday midnight after a tournament and next day having two final exams. Fortunately, he has always got what he has intended.

At the age of six Adrià Mitjavila (Fontcoberta, 1994) started out in the world of sports, in the Unió Esportiva Fontcoberta football team. At the age of thirteen he decided to leave the ball and started to practice rowing, which led him to achieve the Gold Medal in the U23 World’s Championships in lightweight double sculls, 4th position in the 2016 European Olympic classification, 5th position in the 2016 1st Rowing World Cup in lightweight double sculls and 6th in the 2015 U23 World’s Championships in lightweight double sculls. He combined all these sport achievements with an average of 8 out of 10 in his university studies –Biotechonology Degree- at Girona University.

He trains 14 to 18 hours on a weekly basis, even 24 hours in more intense periods; and he studies and average of 30 hours per week. The goodwill, a good training and university organization, and also the help of the family and coaches are crucial. He admits that sport helps to focus, and determination and work are essential to have an outcome.

Following her older sister’s steps, Marina Guerrero (Banyoles, 1994) started in the athletics world as an extracurricular activity. Currently, she practices 1500 and 3000 steeplechase, sports discipline that made her reach milestones as: the 2nd position in the 3000 steeplechase in 2016, and the 3rd in 2015 in the Southland Conference Championship. She was the 2016 Catalonia’s overall winner in 3000 steeplechase and also in lower categories from 2016 to 2012, bronze medal in the Junior Spanish Championship in 1500 in the year 2003, among others. A long list of achievements that she combines with a sport and study scholarship in l’Abilene Christian University, Texas (United States) where she earned the Biotechnology degree with distinction of Summa Cum Laude.

She currently works as the Club Natació Banyoles field and track coach from where she supports the young generations. According to her, the personal fulfilment that brings the academic world and the moments of leisure, perseverance and overcoming of the sports world, are essential elements, as well as having a proper training team. Combining sports and studies has never been a problem to her to the point of training during university entrance exams, “a way to have a clearer mind and retain the concepts”.

Born in Banyoles in 1998, Marçal Gratacós is a triathlete from Club Natació Banyoles who combines the sport with Agri-food Engineering studies at Girona University. When he was a child his parents enrolled him in a football team, but at the age of fifteen he tried triathlon and changed his sport. In Spain, he has participated in duathlon and triathlon tournaments, where he has been among the best twenty players of the duathlon category and among the best sixty in triathlon. As for Catalan, in most of the championships he has been among the best five.

Currently, he is training 10 to 12 hours weekly, which he combines with three hours of class attendance and home studying. He advises to study in a daily basis, so that when exams come you don’t have to study harder or down the sporting performance reducing training hours. Therefore, he says that persistence, effort, sacrifice and confidence with the coach are basic, besides resting, having a good diet and plannification in all the fields.