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Iyana Martín (Oviedo, 2006) is one of the great pearls of Spanish basketball… although he is already more present than future with an enviable resume in the training categories: two world silvers and one European, and a continental bronze. In those four tournaments he was part of the best quintet. And in two he took the MVP… without winning the gold: in the U-19 World Cup against players two years older and after an exciting final against the United States in an overturned WiZink Center, and in the U-16 European Championship. The base (huge, fast, intelligent) attends AS after playing a game with Segle XXI, the high-performance club-center that he arrived at when he was only 14 years old from his native Asturias.
You receive the AS Promesa Award, where do you keep so much recognition? Do you have a special space at home?
Yes Yes (laugh). I have a shelf with all of them in my house in Asturias.
He is only 17 years old and he does not stop accumulating awards, medals… is everything going very fast?
In the end, it goes quickly depending on the importance you give to those things. If you give a prize a very great relevance, of ‘My mother, I have achieved this or that‘ Well yes, it goes very fast because it will go to your head. I give them the importance they have: very good, a prize, but it is part of my past. Obviously, if you compare it with other athletes my age… but it doesn’t affect me that much for everything to happen so quickly.
The important thing is to look to the future, right?
Yes, completely.
From Oviedo to the 21st century at only 14 years old. Quite a big change for a girl her age.
Yes, it is the most radical and important change I have made. I’m spending my adolescence here and it’s already my last year. I still remember when I made the decision to come here, I was very afraid.
And after overcoming that fear, how are things going?
The first year is hard because you have to leave home. Plus, COVID didn’t make things easy for us to return home. And it cost a lot, but as the years have progressed, the truth is that I am very happy. I don’t regret the decision I made at all.
And what has this new life brought you?
A lot as a basketball player, but above all I have had a radical change as a person. The Segle not only looks at how you are on the court, but also at the values you have off the court. How are you with your colleagues? Respect, being a mature person… and those are values that are instilled here a lot.
And to combine studies and basketball, does it help?
Yes Yes. It is the best place to do it.
But it shouldn’t be easy to do it, there must be a lot of discipline…
Yes. This is a place where the residence is one minute from the pavilion; In a minute you have the institute. All schedules are coordinated. The teachers are in constant communication with the coaches and the sports center staff. It’s a gear. It makes your daily life much easier.
How are your studies going?
Well well. Second year of high school, but good.
I understand that you want to continue your studies, what does Iyana Martín want to be when she grows up?
(Laugh). Well look, I have no idea yet. I’m studying science high school, so I’m not going to get into economics now. I haven’t 100% decided what to do. I am focused on the now, on what I am doing at this moment. Then we’ll see.
You still don’t know what you want to do when you finish your studies, but in terms of basketball, do you have any ideas?
It is a decision that has yet to be made. I don’t want to say no to anything. Nor close doors for me. I think it’s still very early. I’m not clear.
But I imagine that playing with the senior national team would be a dream, right?
Yes, of course, obviously.
Every summer he is with the National Team and, sometimes, with two of them, I don’t know if his thing is passion or obsession with basketball?
It makes me very happy that, little by little, there are more girls as role models and as young as us, who are between 17 and 19 years old.
Both (laugh). They go a little hand in hand. In the end, it means having basketball in your head 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Apart from being on the court, I watch a lot of women’s basketball, I love it: the Spanish national teams every summer, the senior team, League games, the Euroleague… Everything, everything. There is a little bit of obsession.
Let’s go to this summer. It must have been a joy to play with so much support at the WiZink Center during the U-19 World Cup finals.
Yes. I think it is the strongest experience I have had in my life: 7,000 people at the WiZink Center. It was crazy. The public was like another player.
And after the games they asked for autographs, photos… did it have an impact?
Yes Yes. I am 17 years old and playing in a World Cup and seeing that you are a reference for little boys and girls, who like to go see you because they are really interested in women’s basketball, it had a big impact on me. It also makes me very happy that, little by little, there are more girls as role models and as young as us, who are between 17 and 19 years old.
Did you feel pressure during the tournament? I ask you because you were the youngest of the group and had a lot of importance in the game…
No pressure. The only thing I wanted was to help the group as much as possible and my teammates made everything super easy for me.
Is it true that you did not expect to be MVP of the World Cup after losing in the final?
No, I didn’t expect it, I swear. I didn’t even expect it. It is an award that they gave to me as they could have given it to any of my colleagues because it was the work of a group.
They were so close to beating the USA in the final (66-69) that I don’t know if they felt proud or if it was even more painful.
At the time it was… I had never been so close to beating the United States and it touched me a lot. It bothered me a lot. Then you think about it and anyone would have agreed to be one minute away from a tie against the United States in a World Cup final. And today, a few months have passed, I see it as an achievement. Yes, I have that thorn because I am a super-competitive person and I think ‘Joe, what would have happened if…‘, oh well.
You had a lot of media focus during that World Cup, how do you abstract from all that? Do your parents, family, friends give you any advice to go little by little?
My family has always, since I was little, helped me a lot in basketball. In having my feet on the ground, in focusing on the girl I am now, in the present. Don’t let anything go to my head. Continue working. And not only my family, but also my club have instilled this in me a lot: continue with the work. I’m super young, I haven’t done anything in life yet. I have a lot left to go. Literally everything in my career.