How Juan Manuel Celaya Conquered His Nerves and Won

The Mexican diver Juan Manuel Celaya Hernández managed to harvest his long-awaited medal at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games together with Osmar Olvera Ibarra, with whom he placed second in the 3-meter synchronized springboard, after three years ago he came close to the glory of getting on the podium in the Tokyo 2020 edition with a fourth place alongside Yahel Castillo in this same event.

“The Olympic Games are just another competition, they are a world championship but more people watch them, the only difference from how I was in Japan and what I learned from there, at that time Yahel (Castillo) told me how the summer competition was going to be with many people, cameras, noise, more excitement and adrenaline that fortunately helped me to solve this competition because I already knew what I was going to face and I had visualized it and it was more than I expected, but the work we did made it more manageable,” said the Nuevo León diver.

The runner-up in the World Cup Super Final in Xi'an, China, together with Osmar, shared that he felt a sense of fear about joining coach Ma Jin's team because of the demanding way she works with her pupils at the National Center for the Development of Sports Talents and High Performance (CNAR).

"I was really nervous and afraid to join Ma Jin's team. I didn't really know her, but I heard rumors and a little of what I saw in competitions, but when I joined the team I realized what she was like and the matter became clearer. We started working and now I feel very happy and calm, although the path was not easy, but it was the path I had to take to achieve what I wanted," he acknowledged.

“Coming to the CNAR to train with Ma Jin's team was the best thing for me, and the medal is the result of that decision and leap of faith, because I also had doubts at the time. However, at the CNAR, I have felt very comfortable, very calm. I really don't lack anything because I have the gym, the food, medical attention, therapies, and they are very good facilities, so it is a matter of knowing how to take advantage of them,” he added.

The diver from Monterrey said that his Olympic medal is the dream he has had since his childhood and what motivated him not to give up in the most difficult moments of his sports career.

“Discipline kept me going because not every day are you going to be motivated to get up, even because motivation comes and goes, so you have to keep the discipline constant to get up every day, do things you don't want to do, be uncomfortable all the time, and learn to enjoy that discomfort to keep going and not let voices come into your head that you did enough today because the objective has not yet been met,” he explained.