She is an athlete who does not need many presentations, as wherever she goes she has always earned the respect and affection of everyone. Malén Sart is a great lover of spearfishing who we have seen in numerous championships and events, not only in her native Mallorca, but also nationally and now also internationally. In her sports curriculum, the Gold Medal for teams and individual Bronze Medal stand out in the 2019 Euro-African Championship held in Denmark. She has also been twice champion of the C.M.A.S. Women’s Cup in the Week Master and Champion of Spain in 2018 in Tenerife (since 2016 she has not come down from the podium in the Spanish National Championship).
Bernat Castell: So many championships, so many titles, … here it shows that you are not going to hang out, that you like competition. Tell us a bit about what drives you to compete.
Malén Sart: When I started to practice spearfishing, I didn’t think about competition at all, although I already had friends like Tomeu Salas (former Spanish men’s coach), who encouraged me to do it, and at that moment I ignored the fact that he was already a visionary.
In 2012, after seeing the weight of the national club championship that was held in Sóller, my husband, who had always competed, encouraged me to join him at the Open Sebastià Carbonell that was already held in January 2013, and I was thus competing in pairs or individual in the masculine championships that were celebrated in Majorca. It was not until 2016 that the Balearic federation proposed, especially by Bernat Castell, that a National Women’s Championship be held and this is when everything started and we will continue until I have the illusion, desire and strength to continue. I want to make it very clear that competition, as such, is not the part I like the most about spearfishing, but I must admit that it has given me a lot; in the sense of meeting people who practice this sport and who have become true friends that enrich my life, of knowing other seas and, therefore, other experiences.
BC: You have practiced and competed in other sports that have nothing to do with spearfishing. Does spearfishing have things in common with these other sports or is it totally different?
MS: The truth is that I have practiced basketball for almost 30 years, a sport in which I started at the age of ten. Obviously, nothing to do with underwater fishing and we are no longer talking about one being practiced on land and the other being in the sea, but different both physically and mentally … For me they are like the reverse sides of a coin .
BC: Spearfishing Why? What does it bring you?
Why, I imagine my husband Tià has had a lot to do with all this. I met him when he was 17 years old, when he already practiced this sport and I always liked the sea and all its world and I started to go with him, and little by little he awoke in me the curiosity if I could practice this difficult sport … and well here we are!
It brings me a lot of serenity, curiosity, enthusiasm and above all friendship and affection. On the other hand, and no less important, it obliges me to respect the environment; respect when carrying out a sporting activity that can be very dangerous and that requires prudence and preparation; and respect for a sea that must be constantly cared for with our practice and principles to continue enjoying that nature and the living beings that inhabit it.
What is your goal in this sport?
I do not want or think about a goal, but just “see it coming” and enjoy this passion every year I can and when it finally ends, be sure that I have enjoyed it to the last.