CARBONELL BALLESTERO Ona

General
TAKING A BREAK
In September 2019 she announced that she was taking some time away from competition and would not compete at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. She wanted to spend more time with two members of her family, who were experiencing health issues, and to become a mother. "My first participation at the Olympic Games is ingrained in my memory. It was in London in 2012, and it was one of the most special moments of my life. It was a little girl's dream that came true and I also was lucky enough to repeat the experience four years later in Rio de Janeiro. Nevertheless, this year, at the start of a new Olympic challenge, I'm faced with a different personal situation. After much meditation with my family, and carefully talking and assessing the situation with my coach and later with the rest of my team, I've decided it's time to take a step aside." The postponement of the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo gave her the chance to consider her future. Shortly before giving birth to her first child, Kai, she planned her return to high performance competition. "There are not many cases of elite sportswomen who had returned so fast to training and in this state. I wanted to come back after giving birth as a sports challenge, but also as a personal challenge." She returned to training in November 2020 and her first competition was in March 2021. (marca.com, 07 Oct 2019; elpais.com, 21 Sep 2019; as.com, 05 Aug 2020; elpais.com, 30 Jan 2021, 12 May 2021)

COACH SUPPORT
She claims the Spanish artistic swimming team at the 2019 World Championships in Gwangju, Republic of Korea, was the best she has ever competed with and that a lot of the credit goes to the coach, Mayuko Fujiki. "For a long time Mayu was like a mother to me. She's the coach I've been with the longest in my life. She has evolved a lot and has absorbed all of the good things from different schools in Japan, the United States of America, Spain and China. She is very demanding, but with her you're always calm because you know the path you are going to take is the right one. As an athlete that is good, you suffer, but you know that it's for something, everything is calculated. She helps a lot with the choreographies. With Mayu we speak the same language. I feel very supported by the team, for me it's the best team I've been with because it's a team in every sense of the word." (efe.com, 11 Jul 2019)

BOOKS
In 2016 she released a book titled 'Three Minutes, Forty Seconds', in which she talks about her life as an athlete. The title is a reference to the length of her duet routine at the 2012 Olympic Games in London, where she won a silver medal. In 2019 she published another book titled 'Elena Sirena' [Elena the Mermaid], which is a series of short stories for children related to her life experiences. "I've had an artistic swimming summer camp and lots of girls aged six to 17 years old come from all over the world. They love to listen to my stories and this book is a nice and educational way to say, 'You're not alone, sport isn't easy, but it's great'. I'm already working on a second book." (elmundo.es, 26 May 2019; sport.es, 14 Sep 2016; elpais.com, 14 Sep 2016)

DESIGNER
In 2017 she launched a line of swimsuits and bikinis with a sportswear company. She has also designed her own competition swimsuits for the world championships, European championships and Olympic Games. In addition she has worked as a model for Spanish designer Antonio Miro. (efe.es, 11 Jun 2017; revistaspgo.com, 01 Sep 2016)

TRAINING CAMP
She runs Campus Ona Carbonell, an artistic swimming training camp in La Garriga, Spain. (campusonacarbonell.com, 01 Jul 2021)