Happy for the gold medal in men's length to Tokyo Olympics Tokyo Olympics and ready to shine in the Paris in 2024, the Miltos Tentoglou shortly after his return to Athens in the early hours of Thursday morning (05/08). Despite his fatigue from the long journey, the Greek champion gave a short press conference, where he promised to... enter the next Olympic Games in Paris with... anime.
«I want to thank you for coming here to welcome me at this hour. I am a little tired because I started very early yesterday morning from Japan, so I was more than 24 hours on the road, »said the 24-year-old Olympic champion, then answering questions from reporters waiting for him at the «Eleftherios Venizelos».
«It's been a little weird this year because of the Covid. Both the trip and our stay there were completely different from any other time. I've been to a lot of races and participated in the previous Olympics, so I knew how to move through the event. I think I managed it well. I followed the plan we had made», said Tendoglou, who, as he stressed «...my role model is Ivan Pedrozo from Cuba».
For the statement he made after the match that Echevarria deserved to win and that he was lucky, he replied, «I was just being honest. I believe he is indeed a better athlete than me that's why I said it. In the race he was better, it just happened, but I would have been second worthy. I wouldn't have had any problems and would be very honest.».
Asked about the fact that he always finds big jumps at the end, he said: «In the race, as far as I'm concerned, I react very well to pressure. I guess my body is doing something on its own. Many times this has happened to me and I have won a medal in the last few attempts.
Once I have happened to jump well in the first few attempts and win. That was at the European Indoor Championships in Torun when I had my leg. It was the first attempt, but for me it was the last attempt. That's probably why I jumped so well. I don't know how I do it. I just concentrate and think about what to do.».
And he added about people's reactions and if anything has changed in the way they think he said: «No, but I do laugh at the jokes they say about me and I've seen on the internet.».
On the difficulties of the morning final, he stressed that «...I think if you are in your continent, it's not that much of a problem. To go to another continent and compete in the morning was a bit of a struggle. I was lucky because we had gone to Misato days before for training and I was used to it. Yes it's a bit hard in the morning for a final. I'm used to doing the preliminaries in the morning. Pomasky saw me well in the warm-up and told me just to run the run well and bring it back a little bit. At first I didn't run it well. Then in the race I found it at the end.».
As to whether he has thought about the next Olympics, he replied laughing «...in Paris I hope we don't reach that point. I will enter with anime but with another move. I've thought about it from now on.».
As for what it takes to reach an Olympic gold medal?; «It takes talent, hard work, perseverance, sacrifice and dedication to what you do. To go to the Olympics, it takes four years. You can't relax in that time at all. It will be hard to recover. You need determination in the race and confidence.» And he concluded when asked how he sees himself in the coming years, «I choose to aim for the near-term goals. Every year I set a different goal and try to achieve it.».
