For 32 years, Maica García called CN Sabadell home. She grew from a young player into an Olympic champion while wearing the club’s colors. But after becoming a mother in 2025, during the final year of her contract, García expected to return to Sabadell and continue her career. Instead, her long relationship with the club ended when her contract officially expired on August 31, 2026. Now, after leaving Sabadell, the 35-year-old has finally opened up about the painful circumstances behind her departure.

Following the end of her contract, Sabadell’s new sporting leadership decided not to offer García a new deal as the club moved forward with a new sporting project. Club sources have described the decision as being made for sporting reasons. 

“After so many years of dedication, hard work, and commitment, I hoped to be able to end my professional career at Sabadell… I never imagined that having a daughter could mark the end of my sporting career at Sabadell in this manner,” García said to El Periodico (translated via Google Translate).

“My contract was supposed to be extended for another year.”

It’s exactly why the Olympic champion ensured that her pregnancy was a decision she had carefully timed. After finally winning Olympic gold with Spain at the Paris 2024 Games, she felt it was the right moment to start a family. She gave birth to her daughter Olivia in September 2025, and throughout the pregnancy and recovery, Sabadell supported her return. 

However, because water polo is a contact sport, she had to take occupational-risk leave early in her pregnancy. Yet at the same time, she continued working toward her comeback with help from the club’s medical and fitness staff. After becoming a mother, García continued preparing to return to the pool and believed she would eventually rejoin her teammates at full strength. 

She trained individually and worked on her physical recovery, aiming to start the new season ready to compete. Instead, those plans changed just before her time at Sabadell ended. García received a call from someone in Human Resources telling her that she would be removed from the club. 

The following day, she received a notification from Social Security confirming that she had been deregistered. The news left her in disarray. 

“I was shocked because it was like I had finished something that I didn’t want to finish,” García said.

The shock quickly turned into heartbreak. After all, Maica García had spent more than three decades at Sabadell and had been preparing to return to the pool after becoming a mother. More importantly, she believed the law was on her side.

Royal Decree 1006 specifically protects professional female athletes who become pregnant during the final year of their contracts. Thus, García believed that protection meant her childhood side should have given her more time.

“I believe the law must be obeyed, and even if this law didn’t exist, I didn’t expect this from my club, because I’ve been with this organization for over 30 years, fighting under these colors, under this crest,” she said.

“I’m the first one this has happened to since the rule came into effect, because it probably would have happened before too, I’m sure of it, I have no doubt. But I hope it doesn’t happen again. I hope what happened to me serves as an example for the future, for women athletes or not, outside the world of sports, in any job,” she added.

She immediately contacted her legal team to understand her options and work out what could come next. Her priority was not retirement. She wanted to find a way to continue playing and remain on course for another Olympic appearance. That eventually led her to CN Sant Andreu, where she has signed through 2028. For García, the move means she can continue pursuing her biggest remaining sporting goal: reaching the next Olympic Games. 

But finding a new club did not erase the emotional impact of leaving Sabadell. “It is very painful,” García said, explaining that she had struggled for months to accept what was happening. She had hoped someone from the club would eventually call and tell her they wanted her to stay with the team. That call never came.

“I had a lot of anxiety attacks, vertigo…,” she revealed. For someone who had spent more than three decades at the club, the departure was about more than simply finding another team. García says it left her questioning how elite sport treats motherhood and whether other athletes without her profile would have the same ability to find a way forward. Despite everything, she has made it clear that she is not ready to walk away.

The childhood decision that changed Maica García’s life

Maica García’s connection with CN Sabadell began when she was just four years old. Her parents initially enrolled her in swimming, but she also tried rhythmic gymnastics before discovering water polo through her older brother Víctor, who played the sport. Swimming eventually felt too lonely for García. She wanted the team atmosphere, the competition and the fun she saw in water polo, so she followed her brother into the pool.

García grew up in a very different women’s water polo environment. When she and childhood teammate Mati Ortiz were around 10, there were very few girls at Sabadell, and they often trained alongside boys. The women’s game also had limited resources, with senior players sometimes training as late as 11 p.m. Her height and strength soon caught the coaches’ attention.

She briefly faced the possibility of becoming a goalkeeper but eventually moved into the centre-forward position, or boya, where she would become one of the best players in the world. García made her Sabadell first-team debut at just 13 and became a regular starter by 2005. In 2007, at 17, she made her Spain senior-team debut and competed at her first World Championships. Her breakthrough with Sabadell came in 2011 when the club won its first European Cup.

She went on to win seven Champions League titles and more than 50 trophies with the club. With Spain, García won World Championship gold in 2013 and three European titles. At the Olympics, she won silver in London 2012 and Tokyo 2020 before finally reaching the top in Paris 2024, where Spain captured the gold medal. But she is not retiring.

And now, García has signed with CN Sant Andreu through 2028, keeping alive her biggest remaining sporting dream: Los Angeles 2028. “It is still my goal and my objective to be able to reach the Games, and having my daughter in the stands would be a dream,” she said. So yes, she is chasing another Olympic dream with Olivia waiting to watch her mother from the stands.