EXTRACT FROM SLICK #16 – released in July 2022
So the journalists provoked him, alluding to the fact that at that point it was legitimate to even think about the title already in the debut season, a sensational feat given that until then it had only succeeded to one rider, always an American: Kenny Roberts. Marc was also thinking about it (and in the end the feat was accomplished, taking this precocious record away from Spencer as well), yet the young star did not fall for the trick.
“Right now I want to enjoy the moment, without thinking about anything else. Because I know that hard times will also come, and there will be suffering, so I enjoy it as much as I can.” Reread today, in the midst of his ordeal, those words make one think.
Is Marc Marquez a seer? Certainly not, otherwise he would have raced differently in July 2020 in Jerez.
Perhaps he already possessed veteran wisdom? Hard to believe so, since in the following years he took risks typical of those who are even reckless.
At the time, he had some insider information, such that he was able to evaluate certain events differently. That was indeed the case, and to really understand this story we need to rewind the tape, to begin a journey backwards that will allow us to better understand this boy who behind his beaming smile and eternal good humor hid a widespread pain: on the one hand it is physical (resulting from major injuries), on the other hand it is psychological (caused by wounds that never fully heal).
BEWARE OF ANTS
One must start with a design depicting a stylized ant. It appeared on Marc’s helmet during the Moto2 period, the two-year period 2011-2012, one of the most important of his career.
The ant was made in several versions, and the outside world was a bit startled to discover that a beast like Marc Marquez felt (and feels) represented by a small insect instead of a big cat. But he explained why only after winning the world title, in October 2012: “The ant is the strongest animal in the world, because it is very small but has incredible strength in relation to its size. Just like me! Then it is so hardworking, and it boasts great adaptability. And I am also like that. So the ant symbolizes my career and my life, that is, what I had to overcome and how hard I had to work.”
For all, Marc was referring to the winter spent in darkness and fear: the brain surgery to treat diplopia, the five-month convalescence that had prevented him from training, followed by the happy ending with victory already in the first race and domination of the championship.
Instead, in Marc’s mind there was also more. There was his story, the battle that began very early. When he talked about “what I had to overcome and how hard I had to work,” he was certainly referring to the injuries but also to the beginnings.
As a child he was somewhat different from the driver who later became world champion. And he was more defenseless. So when he was a child or so Marc suffered forms of bullying: because of the slowness with which his body developed, he was small and puny, so some of his schoolmates made fun of him and humiliated him, made him look insignificant. And this situation was repeated on the slopes.
His father, Julià, recounted this: “Being small but very good, Marc found himself competing with bigger and bigger, and therefore physically stronger, riders; they tried to intimidate him, often elbowing him off the track, and he would come out humiliated.”
So we are within a story of repressed anger, and a desire for redemption that started in school, the Catalunya championships (which Marc dominated) and then went through the CEV, finally landing in the World Championship, where Marc showed an aggressiveness that appeared at times unmotivated but instead had an explanation.
CONTINUES ON SLICK 16