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E-mail Xinhua, July 23, 2024
Spain's veteran canoeist Maialen Chourraut said she is aiming for more medals at the upcoming Paris Olympic Games.
The 41-year-old from the Basque Region in the north of Spain made her debut in Beijing 2008 and is now looking to add two more medals in the K1 and Kayak Cross canoeing events to add to the bronze she won in London, 2012, gold in Rio 2016 and silver in Tokyo 2021.
"I am near the end of my sporting career but I don't know when it will end. Here I am at 41 years old, enjoying canoeing, motivated and making an effort, which isn't bad," she said in an interview with Basque newspaper Deia.
She said she sees Paris as "a new opportunity to continue doing what I like, with the public, with the special atmosphere of the Olympic Games."
"You feel so alive, it's all so extreme, that I'm going to be there," she added.
Paris is almost certain to be her last Games, but she was philosophical about that by saying "right now I am really enjoying being a canoeist. In Paris I will be a canoeist and after Paris I will continue to be one too."
Chourraut said she was excited by the inclusion of the Kayak cross, which sees four canoeists race each other at the same time.
"After Tokyo I didn't know whether to leave or continue and it was kayak cross that pushed me to continue," she said.
"I have the chance to win two medals for the first time. And, although it seems that this new event has arrived at the Games suddenly, for us it has been a slow process," she said, explaining it was a race similar to snowboard downhill, "but on the water."
