While I was covering Prithviraj Tondaiman’s trap-shooting event, something caught my attention— a mother cradling her infant with a stroller nearby. Intrigued, I approached and asked, “How old is the child?”
“Three months,” she replied, her voice calm amidst the chaos of the event. I was taken aback—a mother with her three-month-old at a trap event? There had to be a story there. I asked if I could interview her, but she hesitated, saying in halting English, “My English, no good.”
She called her husband, speaking softly in Spanish. He approached and introduced himself. “I’m Viktor,” he said. “My English no good. Alberto, my child’s godfather.”
It turned out that Viktor was a friend of the 41-year-old Spanish shooter Alberto Fernandez, a two-time world champion and a gold medallist in the mixed-trap event at the Tokyo Olympics.
Marta and Viktor, despite their struggles with English, proudly declared, “Alberto is the godfather of our child.” Viktor added, “Tokyo… mask!”
Due to travel restrictions, they couldn’t be at the Tokyo Olympics to see their friend win gold. Determined not to miss another chance, they had brought their three-month-old to the shooting range to support him now. “No Tokyo, but Paris, yes,” Viktor said with a hopeful smile.
The craze for the Olympics runs so deep that fans and spectators are willing to bring their tiniest team members to the event. I marvelled at how even a three-month-old could be initiated into the fervour, taking in the sights and sounds of the shooting range as her first major live event. Maybe she would grow up with the sound of gunshots in her ears and the smell of gunpowder in the air.
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Viktor works repairing target ranges in Spain, and he showed me a cherished family photo of his elder daughter with Alberto. As a father myself, I asked, “Where is your elder daughter?”
He laughed, “No, she runs here and there, everywhere. Very naughty, no bring here.”
I quipped, “You should put her in athletics. She’ll win gold in no time with that energy!”
Viktor chuckled, and said, “Three to four Olympics later, she’ll be the star.”
With that, he went back to the range, leaving me with a smile and a story that perfectly captured the spirit of Olympic mania, family ties, and humour in the face of language barriers.
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