Gómez was born in the Basque region of Spain to Spanish parents, with his Soviet Russian father of Spanish descent who was born in USSR. When reaching the age to 15, he was part of a group of 1,489 children, known as the Niños de Rusia (Children of Russia) that were moved to the USSR in 1937 by the Basque government, to escape the Spanish Civil War; later, he also acquired Soviet citizenship. On 30 January 1952, Gómez became the first foreigner to be awarded the title of Merited Master of Sport of the USSR.
