Juan Ayuso (cycling)
A John Ayuso (19 years old) He is haunted by need. Spanish cycling devoid of new talents to take over, all eyes are on him and Carlos Rodríguez. Ayuso is an atypical cyclist, nothing to do with the manual of the son of a former cyclist or from the rural world. Born in Barcelona, raised in the United States, where his father moved for work, director of a multinational, and resident in Jávea for studies: in this town they granted him a place to study ESO bilingual format. Ayuso is a son of his time. A climber of 1.83 m. who works in the time trial, a rider who climbs, a complete cyclist and used to the attack. «In lower categories he attacked at 40 kms. and he always won. In professionals he is learning to put elbows, collaborate or not in a breakout, look for space, understand the movements… –his director at the UAE, Josean Matxín, tells ABC–. But the best thing he has is his head, so well furnished ». Pogacar’s partner, the double winner of the Tour, Ayuso dazzled in 2021 with the second division Colpack, with five wins plus the ‘Giro baby’. In 2022, his first professional year, he has achieved places of honor in Romandía (4th), Volta a Catalunya (5th) and Laigueglia (2nd).
Pedro (football)
Of the entire list of futures, Pedri It is the most established. More, even, than Carlos Alcaraz because before it was his silent irruption and his establishment as a pillar in Barcelona and the national team. His reserved character collides with his meteoric sporting explosion: 19 years old, a course in the Las Palmas youth team, a season in the first team and heading to Barça and directly to the Spanish team. He was chosen in the ideal line-up for the European Championship and has collected the ‘Golden Boy’, a miniature golden ball for those under 21 years of age. A lover of combinative football and a great driver of the ball, Pedri has a head above all. «They said that he was too early to debut at 16 years old -recalled Pepe Mel, his discoverer, on ABC-, and to play at 18 for Barça and the national team. And what matters is what the boy does.
Carolina Chacarra (golf)
The prognosis can never be guaranteed because professional sport depends more on mental strength than on technical virtues, but everything points to the fact that Spanish golf has a lasting future based on a surname, López-Chacarra. This is the name of Carolina (18), a promising candidate to install her name among the greats of world golf as other Spaniards have done, Jon Rahm, Sergio García or Chema Olazábal, apart from the sacred monster Severiano Ballesteros.
Carolina López-Chacarra comes from a family of golfers, it is in her genes, and the saga is perpetuated as her brother Eugenio has also chosen this path. Carolina studies in the United States, where the facilities for her to play golf and compete in tournaments of her age group are capitalized.
In America he has won his first tournament, the UFC Challenge in Orlando and has participated in the amateur Augusta Masters. Steps of first level that, with only 18 years, allow us to venture that the good moment of Spanish golf (Azahara Muñoz, Carlota Ciganda, Luna Sobrón or Nuria Iturrioz) will continue with Carolina López-Chacarra.
Pedro Acosta (motorcycles)
Among all the records of precocity or presence and posh surnames in the prolific quarry of Spanish motorcycling pilots there was still room for a new record. The Murcian starred in it last year Peter Acosta (17 years old), the youngest Spaniard to lift a motorcycle title. At 17 years and 166 days old, he won the Moto3 trophy, the World Championship flyweight.
Acosta’s family could not be more alien to motorcycles, his father and grandfather were fishermen in Puerto de Mazarrón, but the boy was encouraged to try the school in Cartagena and, in the first test, touch the asphalt with his knee.
Heir to the great tradition of Spanish riders in the World Championship, from the pioneer Ángel Nieto to Ricardo Tormo, Aspar, Sito Pons, Alex Crivillé, Dani Pedrosa, Jorge Lorenzo or Marc Márquez, Acosta has slowed down his progression this year in the top category, Moto2 , with the Red Bull KTM team. He has suffered with the change in the first six races and has three consecutive crashes.
Maria Vicente (heptalon)
From Mary Vincent (21 years old) has long been talked about as a stellar futuristic vision of Spanish athletics. Specifically, three seasons ago, when she was proclaimed world champion under 18 heptathlon in Nairobi and her expectations skyrocketed. The heptathlon is a combined test only suitable for physically privileged: 100 m. hurdles, high jump, shot put, 200 m., long jump, javelin and 800 m.
Her body, 1.78 centimeters and 68 kilos, radiates explosiveness and her progression anticipates a margin of improvement that can take her to the elite of athletics. “She is the fastest hepatleta in the world,” defines ABC Raúl Chapado, former athlete and president of the Spanish Federation. Since she moved to San Sebastián and trains with former triple jumper Ramón Cid she has improved some of her personal bests.
“She could be one of the greats in the world if she chose horizontal jumps, triple jumps or long jumps,” Chapado deepens. And she is among the best in the heptathlon, which speaks of a versatile prodigy who has a very good head. She has not yet achieved a perfect heptathlon, she has always failed some test, but I have no doubt that she can be among the top five in the world».
David Vidales (cars)
It is assumed by all aspiring drivers that there will never be another Fernando Alonso, a pioneer who invents a sport in Spain. He knows David Vidalesa 20-year-old from Leon, who follows a path similar to that of the double world champion in his efforts to reach F1.
Like his idol, Vidales was started by family influence. His father, a mechanic and car enthusiast, put him in a go-kart when he was four years old at a go-karting near León and the boy has never let go of the wheel. And like Alonso, he had to win and emigrate to Italy to continue with his life project, since Vidales is not from a rich family that pays expenses as is customary in motorsports. In his house they taught him that without good grades, there was no sport, and the kid has gone to university, a mechanical engineering student.
Alonso welcomed him into his team of lower categories, FA Racing Team, and the man from Leon moved after Campos Racing, with which he disputes the third single-seater championship, Formula 3. He is classified fifteenth, with 9 points in 4 races. The star mentor, the late and longed for Adrián Campos, already announced it to ABC. “No one achieves three runner-up karting world championships by chance.”
Jordan Diaz (triple jump)
The most optimistic in the athletics ecosystem, and the trunk is full, predict gold medals and even a world record (18.29 m., by Jonathan Edwards in 1995) in the figure of Jordan Diaza 21-year-old Cuban born in Havana and naturalized Spanish who fled the Castro regime to settle in Guadalajara and live his dream with the group trained by Iván Pedroso (Ana Peleteiro, Yulimar Rojas…).
A talent born for the triple jump that has pulverized records at a young age. 17.30 meters at 16 years old; 17.41 with 17; 17.49 with 18. «I have been a triple jumper and I have never seen such exceptional marks -says Raúl Chapado, president of the Spanish Federation-. They are inaccessible to one hundred percent of the population.
Eighteen days after acquiring Spanish nationality, Díaz broke the national record (17.27 m.) in a sub-23 championship in Salamanca. «I have not seen a jumper with his qualities -says Chapado-. He is very fast, he is balanced and has an amazing jumping ability. If the injuries respect him and he has his head in his place, which is the most important thing, he can go where he wants ».
Adriana Cerezo (taekwondo)
A adriana cherry she didn’t like stereotypes, the old mentality that leads girls to ballet or dance. This 18-year-old from Madrid loved fighting, kicks and punches, Jackie Chan movies and Bruce Lee stories. In martial arts she found inspiration that she did not discover in tennis or figure skating, modalities that she practiced like any girl after school hours in her hometown, Alcalá de Henares.
Her parents were not very happy to find out that, secretly, her grandfather José had enrolled the girl in a gym under his house to practice an almost always unknown sport, taekwondo. As is customary in the Spanish classical family, her parents told Adriana that training and studies came before this sport with a complex name.
Adriana Cerezo not only stood out as a brilliant taekwondo player at the San Sebastián de los Reyes club where she took her first steps as an outstanding athlete, but she has almost shined more in her studies. In the EBAU she got a note of 13 out of 14 possible points. An outstanding that has allowed him to choose a career in Criminology and think about being GEO, the elite of the special police forces.
Her career is impeccable because at the Tokyo Games she became the first Spanish athlete to win a medal, silver in the 49-kilo final. With the Olympic medal, and the European junior and under 21 championships in her specialty, Spain has a reference guarantee for the Olympic cycle.
