For most athletes, the beginning of a new season is filled with anticipation. There are races to prepare for, goals to pursue and the familiar rhythm of training and competition slowly returning.

For Olympic medallist and world champion Joan Antoni Moreno, the 2026 season began very differently.

Just days before the Spanish national selection races and the start of the international calendar, Joan Antoni was involved in a road traffic accident. He suffered complete fractures of both the radius and ulna, causing significant injuries to his arm and requiring two operations.

“I fractured my radius and ulna completely. My arm was left hanging, and I had to undergo two operations in which they inserted two plates to stabilise the bones and allow the fracture to heal.”

In a matter of seconds, the season he had been preparing for disappeared. The immediate challenge was no longer racing, selection or performance. It was surgery, recovery and the uncertainty of whether his arm, and his career, would ever be quite the same again.

At first, he tried to distance himself from canoeing.

“The accident happened only a few days before the national selection races and the beginning of the competition season. I found it really difficult, and I wanted to disconnect from everything related to paddling.”

That proved more difficult than he expected. His sister continued to compete, achieving strong results, which meant that the sport remained close even when Joan Antoni felt that he needed some space from it.

There was also the physical reality of the injury. Following the operations, his wrist was left extremely stiff, with almost no mobility. Returning to the boat required patience and a carefully managed rehabilitation process that gradually reintroduced mobility, strength and, eventually, paddling.

“I was fortunate to find a very good doctor who helped me and created a recovery programme. He was the person who gave me the approval to get in the boat again, start paddling and return to strength and mobility work.”

The progress was encouraging. Joan Antoni felt his body responding more quickly than he had initially feared. Yet physical progress did not immediately remove the questions that followed him through the recovery.

Would there be lasting consequences? Would the arm regain its full function? Would he be able to return to his previous level? Was this simply a difficult chapter, or the end of something much bigger?

“Returning to competition means seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. For me, it has been a very dark tunnel, with the uncertainty of not knowing how the fracture would heal, whether I would be left with lasting damage, and whether this would be a full stop or simply a new paragraph.”

Perhaps that is one of the hardest parts of a serious injury. Recovery is not only about healing bones, rebuilding strength or recovering movement. It is also about learning to live with uncertainty.

Joan Antoni has returned to training, but he is honest that some of those questions remain.

“I have started paddling and training again, but I still have that uncertainty about whether I will be able to return to my best level and fight again for what I was fighting for before the accident.”

This weekend, he will take another important step.

Joan Antoni will race at the Paddle Games in Palma, his only international racing appearance of the 2026 season. Against the spectacular backdrop of Palma Cathedral, he will finally have the opportunity to cross a start line again.

It is a venue that means a great deal to him. Since the first Paddle Games were held at Parc de la Mar, he had hoped that one day he would be able to compete there in front of his home crowd.

“Competing in Palma, especially at Parc de la Mar, is something beautiful for me. It means a lot because it is a setting I love. Ever since the Paddle Games started there, I had dreamed of being able to enjoy competing in that setting.”

His ambitions remain competitive. The short, explosive elimination format should suit his qualities as a canoe athlete, and he is not returning simply to take part.

“My aspiration is to perform really well. I think the format suits me and plays to my strengths as a canoeist. I want to put on a great show and show my people some of what I can do.”

But whatever happens on the water, his presence in Palma already represents something more than a result.

It represents the long days of rehabilitation, the gradual return of movement and the courage required to begin again without knowing exactly where the journey will lead. It represents the moment when recovery becomes competition, and uncertainty begins to make room for possibility.

For Joan Antoni Moreno, the Paddle Games will not only be another race.

They will be the light at the end of a very dark tunnel — and, hopefully, the beginning of a new paragraph.