OLYMPIC gold medallists who put Spain on the map in Rio 2016 have won National Sports Awards, according to the honours listing released yesterday (Monday).
The prizegiving ceremony, as yet sine die, will be hosted by the Royal family who will give out the awards that bear their names.
Nearly all of them are medal-winners or outstanding competitors from last year's Olympics, although other sports personalities and institutions will get prizes for their exceptional contributions.
Lydia Valentín won the bronze for weight-lifting last year in Brazil, which at the time was her first Olympic medal – but doping tests on medallists from London 2012 and Peking 2008 a year ago led to their being disqualified and Lydia being awarded the gold for the former and the silver for the latter.
Maialén Chourraut (pictured, centre) won the individual women's gold and Saúl Craviotto took the individual men's bronze and the doubles gold with Cristián Toro in kayaking.
Saúl, who now has four Olympic medals to his name, will be given the King Felipe Prize for National Sportsman of the Year 2016, whilst Lydia and Maialén – who also won a bronze in London 2012 – will share the Queen Letizia Prize for National Sportswoman of the Year 2016.
The King Juan Carlos Prize for Best Newcomer goes to Marcus Cooper, a British kayaker with a Spanish passport who won the gold in the 1,000 metres individual race, and the Baron of Güell Cup – a team award – will go to the entire Spanish kayaking squad, male and female.
The Queen Sofía Prize for Sportsmanship will be presented to badminton star Laura Sarosi for lending her trainers to a rival player who later knocked her out of the tournament in question.
Swimmer Hugo González takes the Princess Leonor Prize for Best Sportsman Under 18 and Paralympic swimmer Teresa Perales, who has won 26 medals in the games, will be given the Infanta Sofía Prize for Best Adapted Sports Personality.
Olympic walker Jesús García Bragado, who set a national record by competing in his seventh games in Rio, wins the Francisco Fernández Ochoa Prize for Lifetime Achievement, whilst the electricity firm Iberdrola, one of the biggest Spanish female sports sponsors, will be granted the Stadium Cup.
Pioneering researchers in the promotion of women in sports, professors Élida Alfaro and Benilde Vázquez of Madrid's INEF Institute, win the National Arts and Applied Sciences in Sports Prize.
The Latin American Community Trophy will go to Argentinians Santiago Lange and Cecilia Carranza, the yachting team who won a gold at Rio 2016 in the NACRA-17 class, whilst the town council of Antequera (Málaga province) gains the High Council of Sports Prize.
Finally, Ciudad Real's Ferroviario Primary School will be presented with the Joaquín Blume Trophy.
