Overdue, but not overlooked: Who's won the 2019 National Sports Awards

YOU DON'T necessarily have to be Rafa Nadal to win an annual National Sports Award, although if you earned it in 2019, you'll only just be receiving it now.

King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia presented hefty, outsized silver trophies at a gala ceremony this week, all of which were for the last year before the pandemic or for 2020, given that the awards event had to be called off due to Covid.

Winners did include some who have achieved excellent results in their field, but mainly recognised superhuman efforts, true sportsmanship, success despite overwhelming odds, and raising visibility.

And although being Rafa Nadal does not guarantee you a National Sports Award, his sister Maribel collected one this week.

She was one of a handful who was given a silver cup, diploma or both for major contributions to society away from the main sporting arena.

Here's a run-down of who won, and what for.

Extraordinary National Sports Award 2020

Over the first year of the new decade, very little sporting activity happened, so the 'Extraordinary Award' was set aside for those who had worked the hardest during the pandemic, rather than in their actual sport.

Public sector workers in 'essential' fields were forced to risk their lives constantly, being exposed to a virus which had no available vaccine, a complete unknown – making it hard to know how to treat – leaving intensive care units close to bursting; in the early days of Covid-19, as many as one in three patients admitted to hospital with the virus would not survive.

Paralympic triathlete Susana Rodríguez Gacio, 34, from Vigo in Galicia, has only 5% vision in one eye and 8% in the other, due to being albino, but this did not stop her netting a gold in Tokyo last year, becoming world champion three times, and European champion.

Neither did it stop her graduating from medical school – and, as a doctor, she was working right on the front line during the pandemic.

Canoeist Saúl Craviotto has won more Olympic medals than any other Spaniard, at five – the same in number as his fellow kayaker David Cal, but with two golds, two silvers and a bronze next to Cal's one gold and four silvers – and, although one of Saúl's silver medals was at Tokyo 2020, this was not why he received the 'Extraordinary Award'.

Saúl is a National Police officer, and his work during the pandemic would have covered everything from saving lives in emergencies through to general patrolling during lockdown, and even delivering shopping to people who could not go out.

Lifeguard Isabel Costa combines her 'baywatch' activity with her main job as a nurse at a Cantabria care home, and keeping the elderly safe in 2020 meant her work became more hands-on than ever.

Olympic canoeist Carlos Arévalo was on the team with Saúl – as well as Rodrigo Germade and Marcus Walz – when they won their Tokyo silver in the 500-metres K4, and as a soldier in the Armed Forces, he was right at the coal-face of Covid, especially in the worst-hit areas such as Madrid where pop-up hospitals were appearing on industrial estates and the military played an active rôle.

Alpine skier and multiple world champion trail runner Luis Alberto Hernando, 44, is a Guardia Civil officer, so his exhausting duties during the Covid crisis would have been very similar to those of Saúl and Carlos.

Susana Rodríguez and Saúl Craviotto collected the prizes on behalf of the group from the hands of the King and Queen.

Infanta Sofía Award 2019

Spain's national radio and television broadcasting company, RTVE, gave extensive screen-time and air-time to the Paralympics, world and European championship events, as well as airing other major competition events featuring sportspeople with physical or mental disabilities.

The award named after the King and Queen's youngest daughter Sofía, 15, is for a person or organisation who, through their own sporting activity or other means, has actively contributed to encouraging, promoting and improving sports in general to, and practised by, those with disabilities.

RTVE, thanks to its wide coverage, has helped increase visibility, and its representatives were invited on stage to collect their massive silver cup.

National Francisco Fernández Ochoa Award 2019

Named after the late Winter Olympic medallist, this award is for lifetime achievement, and was shared between Emiliano Rodríguez and Lolo Sainz.

Emiliano, 85, from León, is considered to have been one of Europe's top basketball players during his heyday in the 1960s and is a member of the FIBA Hall of Fame since 2007.

Whilst playing for his country, Emiliano and his team won 12 national league titles, four European Cups, nine National Cups, six regional championships, and five international FIBA tournaments.

Manuel 'Lolo' Sainz Márquez, 81, born in the then Spanish protectorate city of Tetouan in Morocco, played for Real Madrid basketball team and was active at the same time as Emiliano, winning seven national league titles, four Copas del Rey and four European Cups, before becoming a basketball coach after his retirement.

As trainer, he guided the national Spanish team to a silver medal at the EuroBasket in Paris in 1999.

Joaquín Blume Trophy 2019

It helps if you're Nadal when it comes to the National Sports Awards. But you still don't have to be Rafa. For the 2022 prizegiving, it was the global tennis ace's sister, Maribel, who collected the trophy.

A close friend at school of María Francisca Perelló – aka Mery – whom she introduced to her brother just as he was becoming famous, Maribel's future niece or nephew will literally owe their life to her.

Mery was 16 and Rafa 19 when they became a couple, are still together at 33 and 36, and husband and wife since October 2019.

Back in June, they were reported to be pregnant with their first child.

Meanwhile, the Joaquín Blume Trophy is awarded annually to the school, college or university, private or public, which does the most for promoting, encouraging and increasing visibility of sport in general.

And this time, it went to the Rafa Nadal Academy, a tennis school founded, owned and run by the family.

Maribel is the academy's marketing director, her and Rafael's uncle and the latter's former trainer, Toni, is coach, and the school's work is very closely linked to the King of Clay's charitable foundation, where his and Maribel's mother Ana María is director, and Mery is project manager.

So, when Mini Nadal arrives in a few months' time, he or she will have a job waiting for them whether or not they show any prowess on the court, and will be meeting their work colleagues practically from the cradle.

Princess Leonor Award 2019

Named after the King and Queen's 16-year-old daughter – currently on summer holidays from her prestigious sixth-form college in Wales – this prize goes to the best sportsperson of the year aged under 18.

General progress, rather than actual results, are taken into account when deciding who the junior of the year will be.

Swimmer Alba Vázquez, from Huelva in Andalucía, is now 20, but at the time of her achievement was aged 17 – she won the gold medal in the 400-metres medley and the silver in the 200-metres medley at the World Junior Swimming Championships in 2019.

That same year, she took home a gold in the European Junior Championships, also in the 400-metres medley.

National Arts and Applied Sports Sciences Award 2019

This silver cup goes to an individual professional or organisation which has made the greatest contribution to promoting physical activity, either as a one-off gesture or over the course of their career.

The recently-published White Paper on Sports for People with Disabilities in Spain is a non-government research project, on sale in bookshops, offering an exhaustive analysis of para-sports nationally and backed up by statistics and science.

A rigorous, global and wide-ranging interdisciplinary study covers the social and economic benefits to disabled people from practising sports at any level, from networking and friendships through to increasing job opportunities and employability, addresses para-sports promotion and talent-spotting, barriers to accessing sports, scope, health benefits, trends, challenges – including financial – legislation and legal protection, how far school and college teachers and sports instructors lack, or otherwise, training in working with disabled pupils, public financing, and guaranteeing equality.

The paper covers every level of sport – as a hobby, occasional leisure, serious amateurs, affiliated, and right up to world championship and Olympic standard.

It concludes with extensive recommendations for future improvements in public policy, law and funding, and a general road-map on how to enhance adapted sports and make them accessible.

This White Paper has earned a National Sports Award, and two of its key authors collected the massive silver cup from the King and Queen.

Baron of Güell Cup 2019

This award goes annually to the national sports team – male, female or both – for outstanding achievement over the year in question.

The men's and women's basketball squads won it for 2019, when they were world and European champions respectively.

Rudy Fernández, captain of the men's team, collected the cup for his side, which took home a bronze medal from the Rio 2016 Olympics and silvers from London 2012 and Peking 2008 – as well as Los Angeles 1984 – but returned empty-handed from Tokyo.

Still, the club, whose first-ever match was against Portugal in 1935 (Spain won), was proclaimed champion after the World Cup final in 2019 in China – the second time, for Rudy himself and Marc Gasol, one of Spain's famous NBA brothers, along with Pau – and Marc became only the second player in history to win the NBA final and the World Cup in the same year.

Spain's women's basketball team played its first match in 1963, against Switzerland, and although they lost, they certainly didn't start as they meant to go on. The girls captained by Laia Palau are the number one European team at present, and world number three in the FIBA standings, took home a silver from Rio 2016, and a bronze from the last world championships, in 2018.

The team had finished reserve champions at the previous World Cup in 2014, with a silver, and gained a bronze medal in the one before that, in 2010 – their début on the podium at this level.

They entered the Spanish Basketball Hall of Fame in October 2021, and won the European championships in 2019 – for the fourth time in their career and the third this century.

In fact, other than in 2011, Spain's basketball women have never failed to make the podium in the European championships since the dawn of the Millennium.

Laia Palau is their most prolific player, with 302 matches under her belt, and collected the trophy on behalf of her team-mates.

Queen Sofía Award 2019

Named after the 'Queen Mum', King Felipe VI's mother – and whom he and Queen Letizia named their youngest daughter after – goes to the player who shows the greatest level of sportsmanship.

This could be through ongoing action, a one-off 'noble gesture', or through 'special contribution to eradicating violence in sports', according to the Royal Household.

Carmen Ramos, 24, from Benicàssim in the province of Castellón, held the national heptathlon record from July 2018 until exactly a year later, with 5,905 points.

She clinched her record during the national under-23 championships in her multidisciplinary field of athletics, which involves seven trials over two days – hurdles, high-jump, shot-put, sprint, endurance, javelin, and long-jump – and has always described herself as competitive, ambitious and very hard on herself when she fails to reach her own, exacting standards.

During an international event in Götzis, Austria in May 2019, just a month before her 21st birthday, Carmen realised her nearest rival – the younger, up-and-coming María Vicente, then 18 – was just a hair's breadth from smashing the Spanish national record.

Carmen could easily have won, but wanted her teen compatriot to enjoy the feeling of being a record-holder when she was so close to doing so.

“I knew María was well within reach of beating the national heptathlon record, and I didn't hesitate – I talked to my trainer, Manoli Alonso, and said, if María and I were neck and neck in the final [800 metres] event, I'd let her pass me so she could achieve it.

“Manoli, of course, agreed, and told me to go ahead.”

Carmen did not want María to feel she had 'let her win', so she made the younger woman work hard until the last few centimetres of their half-mile run, then slackened her pace.

María passed her, but despite Carmen's efforts, fell just a fraction short of beating her rival's record – she finished on 5,900 points, missing the honour by a mere six.

It meant Carmen was still the highest-scoring Spanish woman in heptathlon by the end of the event, but María would do her proud two months later: She won the European under-20 championship in July 2019, finishing on 6,115 points.

María, who was born in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat (Barcelona province) to a Spanish athletics coach mum and a Cuban dad, continues to hold the national record, which she has now stretched to 6,304 points.

Stadium Cup 2019

Unlike in Italy, where seven in 10 Olympic competitors last year were police or Armed Forces members, Spain's entries are normally civilians – but they, too, usually have to hold down full-time jobs whilst honing their sport to global level.

And Spain's Olympic funding was only €40 million for Tokyo 2020 – just over half that of Italy, which spent €70m on the Games.

But sports in the military still has a huge presence in Spain – it has produced Carlos Arévalo and Luis Alberto Hernando, for a start – and this award is given to individuals or organisations which offer significant contributions towards making it happen.

Organising competitions and training, encouraging service personnel to take part, and generally promoting sporting talent and effort within the Forces has earned this year's Stadium Cup for the High Council of Military Sports (CSDM).

Defence minister Margarita Robles, and CSDM chairwoman María Amparo Valcarce García, stepped onto the stage to collect the trophy on behalf of the organisation.

King Juan Carlos Award 2019

Named after King Felipe VI's father – who abdicated in June 2014 in favour of his son, and is currently living in the United Arab Emirates – this award goes to the 'best newcomer' in para-sports.

Runner Adiaratou Iglesias, 23, is originally from Mali, but faced constant danger due to superstitions in her community about albinos, so her family sent her to live in the La Rioja capital of Logroño, northern Spain, for her safety.

She was 11 when she moved in with her brother and his wife, who were already living there, but a reportedly 'dysfunctional' family environment meant she was unable to stay, and was placed in a children's care home.

Adiaratou was later adopted by a Spanish family from Lugo, Galicia, and took their surname.

Due to her albinism, Adiaratou only has 10% vision in both eyes, although this increases to up to 20% with special glasses.

And it has never been a barrier to her prowess on the track: She currently holds the national 100-metres record, at 12.42 seconds and, in 2019, won two silvers in the world adapted athletics championships.

The speedy young woman's award is for her achievements that year, meaning she had already been chosen for it long before Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

There, she netted the gold in the 100 metres, and the silver in the 400 metres.

High Council for Sports (CDS) Award

This prize goes to a town council or local parish committee which has made the greatest efforts all year in encouraging sporting activity at any level.

It could mean actively organising events, offering grants to help residents with sporting potential – especially the disadvantaged – to realise their goals, working hard to provide venues, equipment or facilities in general for practising sports, running campaigns to get people involved in various sporting activities, or a combination of these.

Mayor José Luis Blanco received the trophy on behalf of his town, Azuqueca de Henares, in the province of Guadalajara to the north-east of Madrid, where the 35,400 or so inhabitants are highly active in the local sporting world.

At least 2,200 children in Azuqueca go to classes covering 25 sporting disciplines, and sports clubs and facilities are extensive in proportion to the town's population.

A huge community effort among professionals – instructors, council workers, school staff – and amateurs and volunteers help put local sports on the map at every level in the town.

The council has been focusing heavily on 'community bonding' and integration projects, using sport as a key tool in its bid to 'build a much more close-knit town' with 'greater equality and solidarity'.

During the presentation, José Luis Blanco dedicated the award to local residents for their 'incredible social efforts', and called it Azuqeca's 'greatest sporting success in history'.

Queen Letizia Award 2019

Both the monarchs give out prize in their own name – HRH Letizia's goes to the most distinguished sportswoman of the year in question, and the King Felipe Award to the most distinguished sportsman.

Despite her surname, Clàudia Galicia, 36, is actually from Catalunya – Torelló in the province of Barcelona – rather than the far north-western territory of Galicia, but in sporting terms she is completely international.

She competes in alpine skiing and mountain biking, and is an architect by profession.

Not content with being top of the world in one sport, Clàudia has managed it in two: In skiing, where she is defending world champion in individual sprint and reserve champion in team sprint, and in cycling, took the silver medal in 2017 in the European cross-country marathon championships.

The gruelling six-day Titan Desert Challenge, which normally takes place across Morocco but was held in Almería's Tabernas desert in 2020 for the first time ever, attracted prestigious competitors that year including five-times Tour de France winner Miguel Indurain and Haimar Zubeldia Agirre – fifth in the Tour de France in 2003 and 2007 – with Clàudia emerging the winner in the women's category and Sergio Mantecón in the men's.

She is also national champion in mountain biking and marathon.

King Felipe Award 2019

Spanish basketball swept the board at the recent National Sports Awards. In addition to Lolo Sainz and Emiliano Rodríguez with their National Francisco Fernández Ochoa prize for lifetime achievement, plus the Baron of Güell Cup for both the men's and women's national teams, the 'best sportsman' trophy went to an individual member of the former squad for his exceptional play during the aforementioned World Cup final in China.

Ricky Rubio was elected MVP ('most valuable player') following the successful last match that saw Spain beat Argentina after being unbeaten at any of the eight games in the tournament.

The 31-year-old from El Masnou in the province of Barcelona has been based in the USA for the past 11 years, currently playing for the Cleveland Cavaliers.

His career across the pond and NBA début began with six seasons with the Minnesota Timberwolves, whom he played for again during the 2020-2021 season after being transferred there from Phoenix Suns, his team at the time of the World Cup.

Ricky had only been with Phoenix for two months when he and his colleagues covered themselves in glory in China – until July 1 that year, he had spent the last two seasons with Utah Jazz.

After he had already been selected for the King Felipe Award, Ricky was granted the NBA Cares Community Assist Award in November last year.

Latin American Community Trophy

A tribute to Spain's historical links with the region, this award does not necessarily go to a candidate from a former Spanish colony, or a Spanish-speaking nation. In fact, the 2019 prize, presented this week, was granted to a Brazilian indoor football star.

Carlos Wagner Gularte Filho, known as 'O Ferrão', comes from Chapecó in the south-eastern State of Santa Catarina, although he currently plays for FC Barcelona.

He was with Russia's Club Tuymen from 2011 to 2014, before moving to Spain and joining the Catalunya team, with whom he has won two UEFA Champions League titles, three Copas del Rey, two Spanish League championships, and three Spanish Cup national championships, among others.

During his time with Club Tuymen, 'O Ferrão', now 31, became the highest scorer in the history of the Russian indoor football league.

Earlier in 2022, 'O Ferrão' was elected World's Best Player for the third consecutive year at the Futsal Planet Awards.