Gervasio Deferr

Gervasio Deferr Ángel (Premiá de Mar, Barcelona, November 7, 1980) is a former Spanish artistic gymnast, two-time Olympic champion in vault in Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004, and Olympic runner-up in floor in Beijing 2008. He is one of the most successful Spanish artistic gymnasts, since in addition to the Olympic Games, he also won medals at the world championships in Tianjin 1999 and Stuttgart 2007, at the European Championships in Bremen 2000 and the World Cup. Glasgow World 2000.

Among other recognitions, he received the Gold Medal of the Royal Order of Sports Merit, the Olympic Order of the Spanish Olympic Committee and the Don Felipe de Borbón Award for the best Spanish athlete in the National Sports Awards; all of them in 2001. Additionally, in 2011, the Government of Spain awarded him the Grand Cross of the Royal Order of Sports Merit. He is among the youngest Spanish Olympic medalists for his gold medal at the Games. Sydney 2000 Olympics, at 19 years and 324 days.

Biography

His parents, José Luis and Patricia, emigrated from Argentina to escape the dictatorship imposed after the 1976 coup d'état and settled in the Barcelona town of Premiá de Mar, where Gervasio was born and raised, a restless and very energetic who liked to jump, climb, run and hang for fun. The mother of a rhythmic gymnast saw his acrobatics in a market in Barcelona and urged his parents to enroll him in a technical club. Days later, a Romanian coach named Marcel Marasescu noticed his abilities and included him in his team. At the age of twelve he moved to the San Cugat del Vallés High Performance Center, where he trained under the orders of Alfredo Hueto and He specialized in jumping and floor due to the power of his legs.

In 2007 he worked at StarDreams, a company dedicated to advising managers and executives to improve their work performance, with former soccer player Antonio Maceda as president and made up of prominent athletes such as Almudena Cid, Estela Giménez, Julio Salinas, Albert Ferrer, Blanca Fernández Ochoa, Martín Fiz, Amaya Valdemoro, Fernando Romay and Xavi Torres.

He opened an artistic gymnastics club in the La Mina neighborhood of San Adrián de Besós, Barcelona, in order to train and educate children from families without resources. He trained the Dominican Ray Zapata at the High Performance Center from San Cugat del Vallés, who won the title of Olympic medalist at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games by winning the silver medal in the floor discipline.

Autobiographical book

On February 23, 2022, he presented his autobiographical book The Great Jump at the Casa del Libro in Barcelona, in an event directed by Spanish Television sports journalist and narrator Paloma del Río, who He narrated Deferr's three Olympic medals live: gold in Sydney 2000, gold in Athens 2004 and silver in Beijing 2008. Former water polo player Jordi Sans also attended the event, who shared the mistakes he made during his sports career and the help that he received to overcome it.

Written with the help of journalist Roger Pascual and published by the Ediciones Península publishing label, it narrates his experience with drugs and alcohol when he fell into depression after his withdrawal from competitions, in addition to his story of struggle and personal improvement.

Career as a professional gymnast

Beginnings in competition and debut as a professional

At the age of 15 she became part of the junior national team, with which she won the gold medal in the 1996 Spanish Artistic Gymnastics Championship, a success that marked the beginning of her achievements as a gymnast. In 1997 He moved to Madrid and debuted for the first time in the senior category of the national team, where he achieved a seventh place on floor at the World Championships in Lausanne. At the beginning of 1998 he suffered his first serious injury, which consisted of a fracture of the inner malleolus of the right ankle. That same year he won gold on floor in the junior category at the European Championships in Saint Petersburg, where he also placed fourth in rings, fifth in vault and sixth in parallel bars.

In 1999 he won the silver medal on floor in the first edition of the Samboo Finance Cup, held in Busan, South Korea and belonging to the World Cup. That same year at the Tianjin World Championships, he achieved the silver medal on floor behind the Russian Alexei Nemov and became the first Spanish gymnast to obtain a silver medal in this modality. In the Glasgow World Cup event in 1999 he won silver on floor and gold in vault, and in Zurich, silver on floor. That same year he also won bronze on floor and gold in vault at the Stuttgart World Cup.

In 2000 she won the silver medal on floor at the European Championships in Bremen and reached fourth position on vault. Likewise, she received gold in vault at the Montreux World Cup and bronze in vault at the Cottbus World Cup. He came third in both vault and floor in the DTB Cup held in Stuttgart, although this competition was not included in the World Cup calendar, it was in the Grand Prix. He also won the silver medal in floor and sixth position in vault at the Ljubljana World Cup.

Olympic champion in Sydney 2000

On September 25, 2000, he became Olympic champion for the first time during the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, in the vaulting discipline and with an overall score of 9,712 points; 9,800 in the first jump and 9,625 in the second.

The national team for Sydney was made up of Gervasio, Alejandro Barrenechea, Víctor Cano, Saúl Cofiño, Omar Cortés and Andreu Vivó. In December of that same year he participated in the World Cup Final in Glasgow, where he won gold on floor and silver on vault.

Injuries and second Olympic gold in Athens 2004

He won the gold medal on floor during one of the tests for the 2002 World Cup held in Paris. That same year he underwent surgery at the Terrasa Hospital to resolve a dislocation in his right shoulder; The surgery directed by doctors Ramón Olivé and José María Mora kept him away from training and competitions for three months. Later, he received surgery on his left shoulder in order to prevent the discomfort he was experiencing from leading to a serious injury.. During 2003, a back contracture complicated his training and prevented him from participating in the World Championships in Anaheim, in the United States.

In the 2004 Olympic Games held in Athens, he was proclaimed Olympic jumping champion for the second time with a score of 9,737 points; 9.687 on the first jump and 9.787 on the second. In the floor final he was fourth and in the team modality he took tenth place. In Athens, the Spanish team was made up of Gervasio, Alejandro Barrenechea, Víctor Cano, Jesús Carballo, Oriol Combarros and Rafael Martínez.

Olympic silver in Beijing 2008

At the 2007 Stuttgart World Championships she won the silver medal on floor. At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, his third Games, he participated in the team category, placing 11th and qualifying with the best third time for the floor final, in which he won the silver medal with a score of 15.775 and surpassed only by the Chinese gymnast Zou Kai. The Spanish team in Beijing was made up of Gervasio, Isaac Botella, Manuel Carballo, Rafael Martínez, Sergio Muñoz and Iván San Miguel.

In January 2011 and at the age of 29, she announced her official retirement as a professional gymnast. From that moment on, he worked as a coach at the CAR of San Cugat and joined the board of directors of the Spanish Federation, chaired at that time by Jesús Carballo Martínez.

Drugs and alcohol

A doping control process carried out on October 12, 2002 in the Spanish Championship, returned a positive result for cannabis against the athlete. On October 19, 2002, he tested positive for cannabis again in a doping test at a World Cup test in Paris. A third positive, although residual, also appeared at the Debrecen World Cup.

In February 2003, the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) confirmed the positive result for cannabis and therefore, in July of that same year, it stripped him of all titles obtained between October 19, 2002, the date of the first positive., and on January 19, 2003, in addition to a three-month suspension. He lost the floor gold medal in the Paris World Cup event and the silver medal in the floor modality at the World Championships. Debrecen, achieved in November 2002.

After his retirement in 2011 he entered a spiral of drugs and alcohol until, on February 14, 2017 and with the help of Alejandro Blanco, president of the Spanish Olympic Committee (COE), he voluntarily entered a detoxification center.. He recognized his drug dependence and stayed ten months until his recovery.

Television and internet

• 2024 - Enter as a contestant in the house Big VIP Brother, a telereality program presented by Marta Flich
• 2022 - Interview The Evole, a program led by journalist Jordi Évole, who made a review of his life, achievements and the most complicated moments of his career as an elite sportsman.
• 2022 - Interview with the Spanish Youtuber Jordi Wild, who remembered with the Catalan gymnast all his career from childhood until his retirement.
• 2015 - RFEG promotional video entitled The dream of flyingdirected by Carlos Agulló.
• 2013 - contestant and winner of the talent contest Splash! Famous to water of Antena 3; obtained a prize of 50 000 euros.
• 2008 - Campaign The other side of the medal for the ADO Program, which consisted of a photo shoot and a television announcement by Jaume de Laiguana.
• 2005 - Adventing the Upper Bank (Alava) in the Summer Grand Prix program

Prizes, recognitions and distinctions

Decoration	Year
Grand Cross of the Royal Sports Merit	2011

Explanatory note

1. ↑ As an “official international commission” we understand those international competitions organized by the International Federation of Gymnastics (FIG), by its continental organisms (such as the European Union of Gymnastics) or by the International Olympic Committee (with FIG). They would therefore include Olympics, Olympics, World Championships, European Championships, European Games and World Cup testing, as well as extinct competitions such as the World Cup Final, the European Cup Final, the Euromasters, and the European Championship for Teams (Euromasters' successor). It is not included under this term competitions only sponsored by such agencies, such as the Mediterranean Games or the World Games in the case of IOC.