Anyone who knows me knows that, to me, sport has never been just about sport.
A long time ago, it stopped being a separate part of my life. It is deeply intertwined with my work, the way I think, the people around me, and the person I am becoming. Everything I learn through sport inevitably becomes something I apply to life beyond competition.
This season, more than ever, I’m learning an important lesson: to use sport, instead of letting sport use me. To be the one making the decisions, rather than allowing circumstances or the pursuit of perfection to dictate how I feel or perform.
I’m a very reflective person. Every experience has meaning to me. Not because I feel the need to force a lesson out of everything, but because I genuinely believe that everything happens for a reason if we’re willing to pay attention.
From March to June, I spent almost half of my time in Spain, away from home. It was an intense period where I had to let go of many of my usual routines. I spent entire days on buses, took around ten flights, and was constantly moving from one place to another. I couldn’t control what I was eating, what time I would go to bed, or how I would get from one place to another. I competed in conditions that, a few years ago, I would have considered far from ideal.
In the past, I would have let those things define my performance. I would have convinced myself that I couldn’t perform at my best because I hadn’t slept eight hours, eaten exactly what I wanted, or recovered the way I normally would. Traveling brings its own level of stress, and this year my biggest challenge has been learning not to create even more stress by trying to control everything.
As someone who loves planning every detail and knowing exactly what the next few hours, days, and even months will look like, embracing uncertainty has become one of the most valuable forms of training.
Maybe that’s the biggest lesson this season has taught me: performance doesn’t come from perfect conditions. It comes from adaptability. From doing your best with what you have, where you are. Because real strength isn’t about creating the perfect environment—it’s about learning to thrive even when it isn’t.
