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“If someone had told me this twenty years ago, I wouldn’t have believed them,” Teresa said in a interview for the magazine of Spanish airline. So far there are only two Spanish athletes with six participations and one with seven. Bragado’s achievement is incredible, hard to surpass,” said Portela, but also added that “anything can happen in four years. I prefer to work from season to season; time will tell what’s what. I just hope to stay healthy and injury-free.”

 

Portela comes from Galicia, which has produced many excellent paddlers, such as David Cal, “I’m very proud of my homeland. We’re lucky, because we have a lot of coast, and there are loads of clubs where we can practice canoeing from a young age, which in turn means a lot of talents have the chance to come out. Galicia has quality!”

 

With five Olympic Games checked she is an expert on the subject, “Every edition has been as intense to me as the first. The best advice I can give someone who’s going in for the first time is to enjoy it. It’s an experience you must immerse yourself in as much as you can, because there’s only a few of us privileged enough to be able to. You’ll remember it forever. Each country has tried to give it all when it comes to the organisation of the event, and I’ve been impressed by all of them. I can’t really pick one.”

 

Teresa, who has 16 medals from World Championships and 17 medals from European Championships, has proved women can successfully combine a career and motherhood. In 2013 she gave a birth to daughter Naira. “I wasn’t sure at first; I had no idea how I was going to combine motherhood and competing at the highest level, but taking a break turned out to be the right decision: the following year, 17 months after giving birth, I won the bronze at the World Cup. Women are achieving ever more and better results, which is progress. I hope things keep improving and that we’ll stay on the way up. Every day I feel like I’m running! I’m always in a rush to get everywhere, but in the end, I always get there,” she concluded.