INTERVIEW WITH LUCIA FALASCA

INTIMATE INTERVIEW WITH LUCIA FALASCA FROM EUROPE

SET OUT TO THE ILCA 6 2023 ARGENTINE CHAMPIONSHIP AND THE 2024 WORLD CUP

1 I would like to know how you are preparing yourself, what are your days like? What is your daily routine like?
During the championship, does your routine become stricter due to the training and the demands of the competition?

This year, being the year before the Olympic Games, we decided with my team to push the accelerator and stay training in Europe for the first part of the year. So, after winning the South American in Buenos Aires, in February, I came to Europe to compete and train. Now I am in the final stage of preparation for the World Cup in The Hague, which gives first places for the Olympic Games in Paris 2024.

In general, days are quite similar. In the morning before breakfast, I do activation and postural exercises (the years do not come alone). I start with a good breakfast, and then sailing or physical training (gym, bike, rowing machine), depending on what stage of preparation I am in, I do one before the other. And in the afternoon I usually take 40 minutes to stretch, do ice baths if the conditions in the water were very hard, or some other activity that helps me recover so I can continue maintaining this routine without physical discomfort and keep pushing in training.

Food in our case is super important because the weight in the ILCA is fundamental, so there is no shortage of Tupperware with food, bars, gels, and others.

These last 5 months we have been in different places to be able to train with different conditions and thus be able to improve different aspects. We did the last training camp in the Netherlands last week, so now it’s time for the final preparations to get to the World Cup that starts on August 13 in the best way.

2. What tips or recommendations could you give to be in optimum condition and achieve good performance when competing?

I believe that in principle it is essential to surround yourself with committed and capable people. Who allows us to improve and provide a valuable opinion. Make an analysis of what needs to be improved and how to improve it. Develop a work plan and execute it. Understand that it is a very complex sport with many variables and that it will take time, dedication, patience, effort, and many other things to be able to reach a high level. But the important thing is to be convinced of that search and go for it.

3. Why race in a laser, or why do you choose it?

At the time I finished my step-in optimist and I had to choose which boat to continue with, the Laser (now ILCA) seemed to me an excellent option because I knew that I wanted to continue sailing at a high level and unfortunately it was not so easy to find other girls who wanted to dedicate to sail as much as to assemble a crew. And well, also the advantage of being a one-on-one boat and being able to organize myself with the times to be able to study Engineering.

On the other hand, the ILCA class is the largest and most popular on the Olympic circuit, which makes it a highly competitive class. And it’s a challenge I enjoy taking on. Sailing in such a large class, which has become so professional in recent years, is incredible and super motivating. There is always some aspect to keep working on, physical, technical, tactical, psychological. I think what appeals to me the most is that the ILCA class is really a very challenging class.

4. You competed as part of the crew in the J70 class and in formula boats. Do you enjoy racing as a team or do you prefer the challenge of sailing individually without the demands of others?

Sailing as a team was an experience that I really enjoyed and I hope to continue doing it. Obviously by sailing alone for most of my career, I had my doubts about what it would be like for me to work as a team. More than anything for the communication part, since basically at ILCA I talk to myself. But the truth is, I don’t know if it’s because we are 8 brothers or what, but it was quite natural for me to communicate, to transmit. Well, you would have to ask the crews I raced with haha! I think they are two quite different things or at least that’s how I experienced them. Today I prefer to be on the Olympic circuit and face other types of challenges, not necessarily because it is individual, but because it is the boat in which I specialized.

5. How do you see your rivals and what differences do you notice between the championships abroad and ours in Argentina? Tell me everything you want about your experience in the class.

When I started to sail on the circuit I thought they were unattainable, but as the years went by I realized that in Argentina we have everything to be at a very high level. I had the opportunity to form a team with girls from other countries and living together on a day-to-day basis allows you to see what they do differently or not. I could see that we had many things in common in the way we work and obviously improve those that I thought needed to be improved.

As for the championships, the infrastructure that we have in the Argentinean clubs has nothing to envy to those from abroad. Surely there are many things that we can improve in terms of high-performance sports, but if there is something that stands out, it is that human resources in our country abound, perhaps the most difficult part is the economic part. The sport has become professionalized in such a way that in that aspect it is more difficult to keep up with the great powers of sailing.

6. Do you have many friends in the class?  What is your greatest wish or expectation within the ILCA world?

If there is something that I am very grateful at this sport, it is the possibility that it gave me to make friends all over the world. Since I started traveling with optimist at the age of 13 until now on the Olympic circuit. That it is an individual sport does not mean that we are alone. But it forces us in a certain way to generate links with other athletes from other countries. I had the opportunity to set up training groups with girls from other countries and with many I have generated a bond of friendship that continues to this day. And with the passing of the years new ones are generated.

My greatest wish on a sporting level is to be in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and improve my result in Rio 2016 where I finished 11th. Consolidating in the top 10 in the world in such a competitive class is something I’m working hard for, and I hope to achieve. So all the chips are on the 2024 World Cup in Mar del Plata, the best place in the world to sail!