The swimmer Teresa Perales will have her successor in the “Princess of Asturias” Sports Award at noon today. The Foundation did not inform about the finalists, although the president of the jury, Abel Antón, announced that among the initial candidates were those of the gymnast Simon Biles and the fin Allyson Felix. Spanish athletes, such as the motorcycle driver Marc Márquez and the badminton player Carolina Marín were also among the contenders for the award, which reaches its XXXVI edition.
Abel Antón, who described the list of 24 candidates, from ten nationalities, as “impressive”, presides over a jury completed by former sailor Theresa Zabell; the president of the Spanish Olympic Committee, Alejandro Blanco; former soccer coach Vicente del Bosque; the president of the Paralympic Committee, Miguel Carballeda; former swimmer María Paz Corominas; the leader Joaquín Folch-Rusiñol; the director of the newspaper “Marca”, Juan Ignacio Gallardo; rugby player Patricia García; the director of the newspaper “As”, Vicente Jiménez; the director of “Mundo Deportivo”, Santiago Noya; the mountaineer Edurne Pasabán; the journalist Paloma del Río and the athlete Alberto Suárez Laso. Emilio Butragueño, director of Institutional Relations at Real Madrid, and journalist Albert Sáez were absent.
Among the candidates, Antón highlighted those of the Americans Allyson Felix, an athlete specializing in sprint and relay races, and the gymnast Simone Biles, the most successful of all time in both the men’s and women’s categories. For Abel Antón, one of the “great favorites” and the one with his preference is Allyson Felix, the most successful athlete of all time, seven-time Olympic champion and thirteen-time world champion, to which he adds “the human component of a woman who became pregnant and who had all sponsorships withdrawn at the time”.
“After having her son, she returned to competition and won Olympic medals,” said Antón, who recalled that last year, when Felix was still active, he was on the verge of getting the Princess of Sports Award. Regarding the Spanish applicants, Abel Antón has mentioned Carolina Marín, who has recently been proclaimed European badminton champion after overcoming a serious injury, which “enlarges” the award. In addition, in the list of applicants is the pilot Marc Márquez, who has been referred to as an “institution” in the field of motorcycles, along with the “reference” of Ángel Nieto.
Paloma del Río, the journalist from Televisión Española who will retire next year after covering nine summer and seven winter Olympic Games, acknowledged that she had her preferences: “I would like the award to go to a minority discipline, to the extent that it was just, so that it came to the fore and gave it a boost”. Del Río also expressed her commitment to women’s sports: “This has been like pushing a tractor uphill. Men have been doing sports for 21 centuries and women, 150 years. We have made progress, but we still have a long way to go. Barcelona-92 was the turning point, and from then on we have begun to see more aid, more affection towards women’s sports. But there is still a lot to improve, in equipment, in diets, in training schedules…”.
