New year and new perspectives. We are leaving a remarkable 2022 for Spanish women’s sport and we are starting a 2023 in which we will have great events to enjoy.
The Australia-New Zealand World Cupthe Eurobasket femenino in Slovenia and Israel, the prelude to the 2024 Paris Games… This will be a year full of competitions in which we will see some of our big established stars, but also some promises to follow very closely. In this space dedicated to women’s sports at THE OBJECTIVE we want to highlight ten young Spanish women –all born in this century– who can stand out this year:
Sofia Fuente (Soccer)
The starting goalkeeper for Real Madrid B and the Under-17 National Team, Sofía Fuente (Madrid, 2005) is the great promise under the sticks of Spain. With the Spanish Selection she was proclaimed World Champion in India last year, and with Real Madrid she is already a regular in all Alberto Toril’s calls as the third goalkeeper, after Misa Rodríguez and Méline Gérard. In the Under-17 World Cup in India, she had an outstanding performance, which led her to win the Gold Glove of the competition. disputed all World Cup matches, conceding only three goals, resulting in a coefficient of 0.5. A little gem in our national goal to follow closely.
Mama Dembele (Basketball)
Mama Dembele (Manlleu, Barcelona, 2002) is one of the most outstanding players of this new batch of basketball, a generation that is called to continue with the great successes of Spanish basketball. The player, who is currently a member of the NCAA Missouri Tigersthe American university league, comes from CB Manlleu and was formed in the 21st century, a notable Catalan women’s basketball academy. This base, which has just been hung on gold in the European sub-20is ready to make the leap to the absolute selection. he likes to defend, something rare nowadays. On more than one occasion, she herself has acknowledged that they “look at her weird” for it.
Irene Blanco (Weightlifting)
Irene Blanco (La Coruña, 2002) is the great promise of Spanish weightlifting. She was under-17 world champion in the weight category of more than 81 kg in Las Vegas, United States, in 2019. In 2022 he achieved break two records in Spain during the Junior World Championships in Greece. In the two-stroke modality, she reached 120 kilos, for which she took the junior national record. In the Olympic total, Irene managed to get another Spanish record by adding 211 kilos. The next big challenge for her is paris 2024.
Ane Mintegi (Tennis)
Ane Mintegi (Idiazábal, Guipúzcoa, 2003) has knocked on the door of tennis making a lot of noise. The Basque tennis player became last season the first Spaniard to win the Wimbledon junior tournament. With a natural but hard-working talent, the tennis player is destined to stand out in Spanish women’s tennis, in which women such as Paula Badosa or Garbiñe Muguruza have recently shone. Months after winning Wimbledon, Mintegi got injured. First, in the abdominal. Then in the elbow. She even had to undergo surgery. In August returned to the slopes, specifically those of Maspalomas. The tennis player José Checa, his coach, was key in his recovery. A tennis player to follow closely in 2023, as she adds matches and resumes the competition rhythm.
Vicky Lopez (Soccer)
One of the great sensations of Spanish women’s football, one of the pearls recently signed by FC Barcelona. Vicky López (Madrid, 2006) was trained in one of the great quarries of the football in Spain, the Madrid CFF. Like Sofía Fuente, Vicky is the current U-17 world champion. Her two goals, in fact, were the ones that got Spain into the semifinals, and she played every game signing stellar performances. So much so that she was named Golden Ball of that World Cup and went MVP in two games. As for club football, he has been a very important signing for FC Barcelona, a team in which debuted at 16 years and 148 daysbecoming the youngest in culé history to do it with the first team (female or male). 2023 seems to have its own name and that is Vicky López’s.
Luna Fluxá (Motor Racing)
Luna Fluxá (Palma de Mallorca, 2010) is the youngest on this list. However, his achievements are already enormous.: she is part of the Mercedes academy – in fact, she is the only girl in the team’s youth program – and aims to be the first woman to officially compete in a Formula 1 championship. Her ability at the wheel of a kart has made her the first girl to train in the German team led by Toto Wolff, who does not hide when it comes to betting on her: «I would not say that we have THE woman, but We do think she’s capable of it.” Luna comes from one of the most important business families in Spain: they are the owners of the powerful Iberostar hotel group and the Camper footwear brand.
Estel Puiggros (Basketball)
Estel Puiggros (Manresa, Barcelona, 2001) is one of the dozens of Spaniards who have tried their luck in the highest university division in the United States, the NCAA. This shooting guard currently plays in the Ball State Cardinalsfrom Ball State University in the state of Indiana, although he was previously trained in Spain, specifically in the lower categories of the Joviat and the XXI Century, which –as we said– is one of the great academies of Spanish women’s basketball. He has had some bad luck with injuries, although 2023 could be the year of his consolidation, also in the Spanish National Team. The Spanish Basketball Federation (FEB) describes it as “the ‘player’ of the team. She is that type of outside player capable of overflowing one on one, shooting from medium and long distance, or penetrating and scoring near the basket. Smart and quick and defense, she is the player who asks for the ball in the delicate moments of the match ».
Xela Martínez (Athletics)
Xela Martínez (Lugo, 2006) is the great promise of Spanish athletics, the young prodigy who At only 16 years old, he has already broken the best national brand under 18 and under 20 in the 3,000 meter test. He did it by competing with the greats in the absolute Spanish Championship, and thanks to a time that he will always remember: 9:14:95. Xela began her journey in this discipline at the age of 11 at the Lucense Athletic School, and in just five years it has already exploded on a national scale. Galicia, which is one of the great academies of Spanish athletics – Ana Peleteiro’s successes attest – has a young runner who could return Spain to the top in world championships and games in just a few years.
Ania Setien (Badminton)
Spanish badminton has a great reference in the world champion Carolina Marín, which has undoubtedly made it possible for great promises of this sport to germinate throughout the Spanish geography. Ania Setién (San Sebastián, 2003) is one of those young people who look to the Huelva player to progress. Anya He has gotten used to getting on the podiums of half the world, something that led him to debut with the Spanish National Team at just 16 years old. Now, at 19, he continues to succeed. For example, he was recently one of the great highlights of the first Ibero-American championship in history with two golds and one bronze. On that same tour of America, the woman from San Sebastian was also proclaimed champion of the El Salvador International together with Joan Monroy in mixed doubles.
Maria Vicente (Athletics)
We close this list with an already consolidated promise. It is María Vicente (Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona, 2001). An athlete specialized in combined events. We want to highlight her because, although her injuries have not respected her, she is capable of recovering time and time again, as she has been demonstrating. In 2017 she was heptathlon under-18 world champion in Nairobi, being the first Spanish athlete, of any category, to obtain a medal in this event. she holds the best indoor pentathlon under-18 world record (4371 pts since 2018) and in the past he also had the heptathlon (6221 pts between 2018 and 2020). She is also the absolute Spanish record holder in the heptathlon, with 6,304 points, and in the indoor pentathlon, with 4,501 points. Last October it was operated on the anterior rectus of the quadricepsso the 2023 indoor track season is lost. Although he already plans to return to the slopes in the summer and his main objective is, of course, the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. We hope we can see it at 100% by then.
