How to go to the Olympic Games as an athlete without going to compete (but to work) and have enough friends/acquaintances fulfilling their dreams and not cry all the time trying.
If you’ve come here to find out what Julia Castro (pronounced Yulia) did at the Paris 2024 Olympics, you’re in the right place. Let’s go there.
First of all, I would like to tell you that, for many years, I stopped expressing myself as I wanted because some people kept telling me that I was too sensitive, that it seemed that everything I wrote was written with sorrow. So there was a kind of administrative silence in which I limited myself to publishing what the algorithm wants without expressing my personal opinion.
Little by little, the opportunity to be a Community Manager appeared, which now looking at it with perspective, was a great opportunity to express all my sensitivity through the sporting events I managed. And I think this was one of the things that took me to Paris 2024 with World Sailing (the International Sailing Federation). So, if you are sensitive, then to be sensitive and let others say mass!
How did I get here?
Since I was a little girl I always liked technology.
At home we had toy computers and other electronic gadgets that fascinated me. I spent hours drawing in the Paint of my father’s computer or tinkering, to see what could be done with those square machines, there was no Youtube so I had to find out for yourself.
During high school, there were already social networks but, obviously not as we knew them now, at that time I was very clear that I wanted to do something related to sport and communication (something that my physical education teacher did not like at all, since he was convinced that it was the perfect profile to study INEF).
Instead of going straight to university, and wanting to pursue my dream of being a professional kitesurfer, I moved to San Fernando to study 1st grade of animation of physical activities and sports, since I couldn’t find anything “communication” that I liked.
At that time I didn’t have a penny (not that I have it now) and I dedicated myself to telling my adventures of how I tried to become a professional kitesurfer on Facebook. I saw that my comics had an interesting number of followers and people who liked what I told and that’s how my life on social networks began
"Just because it is like this does not mean that it should be that way"
In 2017, I was on a plane on my way to the CableWakeboard World Cup in China and I had to sit with the president of the European Cablewakeboard Federation, we had many hours of travel and we started talking about everything a little bit until the topic of marketing and communication arrived. He told me that they had a problem because they didn’t have anyone to do this to them and, almost as if it were yesterday, I replied “hey, I communicate and make social networks for myself, I could try for the federation, in the end it can’t be too different”.
A few months later, I was taking the European and African Championships when I was 23 years old. I ended the week in the hospital urinating blood from stress. But I learned a lot.
From there it was word of mouth, I was sharing what I did, people saw it and they were calling me for events of various kinds. Until 2020, practically, I had worked in kitesurfing, wingfoil, cablewakeboarding, wakeboarding, water skiing, parties… If you click here you can see all the events I have worked on to date
And how do I land on the sail?
It was a “post-covid” era. You still had to wear masks and I think we had just finished with the curfews when I received a call from Nolo, with whom I had already done some kite events around the islands.
"Hey, are you in Fuerteventura, what are you doing next week? There is a pre-Olympic sailing event in Lanzarote, in Marina Rubicon. Do you want to come and take the nets?
I’m not afraid to admit that I didn’t have the slightest idea about sailing. But, fear was never my thing and I threw myself into it. The event was nothing more and nothing less than the last chance to get 3 “tickets for the 49er, 49er FX and NACRA 17 Olympics. I had never seen a 49er in my life, but we were lucky enough to have one of the best photographers in the sailing world at the event, Jesus Renedo from Sailing Energy, who helped us all soak up all things sailing.
All the stories he told us, the passion I saw in his eyes when he talked about those boats and everything I experienced that week made me fall in love with sailing.
Luckily, you can see that we did something good in that event, because that was what later propelled me to reach the Games, having worked for major events and disciplines (the Princess Sofia Trophy of Mallorca, Hyeres, the Copa del Rey, La Fastnet, the Rolex Sailor of The Year, 470, iQFOiL…)
How about Paris?
WELL, INCREDIBLE!!
I came to the games to work with the International Sailing Federation, formerly called ISAF and now World Sailing (practically all the federations in the world are called World + xxxxx to unify and make it easier to find the federations and know which are the official ones and which ones are not).
Well, to begin with, sailing at the Paris Olympics was a “satellite event”, that is, just like sports like some football matches, basketball, etc., are held in other cities.
We had to spend 17 days in the city of Marseille. I must admit that there was not even half the decoration as in Paris, but hey, we accept boat as an aquatic animal. We were also more than 10 degrees apart from Paris, every day +30 degrees, wow, a lot of water and sweating like chickens but…
It has been one of the best experiences of my life and I still can't believe that I have had the opportunity to experience the Games from the inside.
We also had the bad luck that the famous French Mistral (strong and gusty wind from the land) did not appear for more than one day… So it was a little windy and many regattas had to be cancelled. Wow, a real communication challenge!
In general I am extremely happy because I had several functions and I was able to carry them all out, in the end, in these last three years I feel like I was “training” in other events, so I came to the games with things clear.
Seeing people you know and friends achieve their dreams, and being in charge of telling it is amazing, I’ve said it more times, but I spent two weeks with goosebumps and tears in my eyes. Excited, grateful, trying to enjoy every moment despite the craziness that these games are and how frenetic I am. I would do them again a thousand times and, hopefully, the opportunity will be given.
My functions: manage social networks (read and respond to comments, post part of the content both stories, reels and posts, write texts...), present the event and close it every day, edit the content I recorded.
Paris Express Tour
It wasn’t in the established schedule, but I decided to go to Paris on my own a few days before the start of the event, so I could see “the real games”. In addition, I took advantage of it and made a video for Relevo that already has more than 66,000 views. And… a little unintentionally, the World Sailing team and I came up with the idea of making a small parody video about “where is the sailing at the Paris Olympics and… More than 500,000 views!
So, I think it was worth it. I ran to Marseille and we started the Games there, where some football matches were also held.
The team
In World Sailing there are many people who work continuously so that sailing in the world works in the best possible way, here I am going to refer to the communication team of which I am super proud to be a part. Communicating games is not easy and the most normal thing would have been to throw things at each other’s heads at some point, but we made a great team and we were able to carry out very different Games communicatively speaking. The communication team:
- Scott Dougal. Director of Digital Communication.
- Tom Roberts. Content Director.
- Lewis Smith. Digital communication.
- Claire Boyd. Director of Partnerships.
- Andy Rice. Journalist
- Stefan Frost. Journalist
- Lucy Stewart. Photo Editor
- Mark Lloyd. Photographer
- Sander van der Borch. Photographer
- Jean-Louis Carli. Photographer
The best and worst times
- I have so many better moments! I am going to list a few, and for the record they are not in order of priority:
- Seeing me there at the Games, with my accreditation and my official work clothes. Absolutely brutal
- Seeing my friend Annelous getting a bronze medal in the kite… Mother miiiiaaaaaa!!
- The 470 medal, although it was also very sad because Jordi and Nora did not get their medal, but it was a tremendous joy to see Lara and Lukas getting the gold. In addition, it was the first gold medal won by Austria in 20 years!!
- The dinners and the little moments and the laughter with the classmates. Each and every one of them. Dusty, sweaty, but with a smile on their faces.
- The first gold medal for Spain by Diego and Flo in 49er… How cool to be able to tell it!
- The great atmosphere that there was every day in the spectator area.
- The videos of the mornings and afternoons with Andy, some days were harder, other times the words came out by themselves but… Being able to have this professional piece by my side helping me was brutal.
- The comments. I was in charge of reading and managing the comments on the federation’s social networks and, you would think that during a few games people would turn to congratulate the competitors… Well, yes, but I also read a lot of hate messages of all kinds and on many topics. The people behind the mobile phone are very brave and forget that these comments are read by people, not robots. People like you and me. I had a super low day after reading so much hate but then it went away. But hey, let’s see if we think a little more about the consequences of our actions.
What plans do I have for the future?
Even though it’s been several weeks since the Olympics, I’m stilltrying to enjoyhow amazing they were and not think too much about the future, although I can’t help it and I feel in a position to have to… I am considering returning to competition, kite and wingfoil waves, since both disciplines are done at the same time. I’m also considering competing again in the KPL (Kite Park League) in which I was runner-up in the world in 2018… And combine it with my work as a community manager (or Swiss Army knife of events).
I want to make more videos about water sports on social networks, more than anything so that I can show others how amazing these sports are and that girls can also practice them. There is the possibility of carrying out my first mixed kite camp (until now I always did them only for women) in a dream location and… Well, those are the ideas I have right now. At the moment I need to sit down with my current sponsors and new sponsors to see where to go, all together.
Thank you, we keep fighting
I wanted to end with another little reflection.
- Sometimes it’s easy to forget where you come from and stop being grateful
- Leaving a small place does not mean that you are condemned to do small things
2. I was born in Puerto del Rosario and raised in Morro Jable, a town south of an island in the middle of the Atlantic and, for those who were not born on a smaller island, it is difficult to imagine the number of fewer opportunities we have simply compared to our neighboring islands, imagine the peninsula. That is why I encourage those who have made it to the end, not to give up, no matter how small the town they come from. I invite you to dream big, because you don’t already have it, why not try it?
Thank you very much for reading this far.
See you on the water.
