One of the things that Spain can be proud of is of Sports. Over the last few years, women have gained prominence in the Spanish sports landscape. Swimming, tennis, badminton and football are just a few of the examples where we can find brilliant athletes. We only have to look back at the Olympic Games at Rio de Janeiro 2016, where Spain won 16 medals, of which 9 were won by women.
To commemorate International Womens' Day, we’ve made a compilation of a few Spanish women who are key to Spanish sports:
- Mireia Belmonte: This Olympic swimmer started to practise the sport on the advice of her Doctor, and since then her aim for improving has taken her to the top, being one of the top swimmers in our country. She suffers fromAsthma and she’s allergic to Clorox, which makes her efforts even more admirable
- Garbiñe Muguruza: This tennis player could have never imagined that she would play against – and beat – her idol Serena Williams (Roland Garrós 2014).
- Laia Sanz: A motorcycle lover since she was a kid, she has won the Women's Trial World Champion 13 times. Over the last few years, she has been a regular in the Dakar Rally, where she has won 7 times in the female category.
- Carolina Marín: Badminton has grown in popularity in our country thanks to this Andalusian player. She’s the world leader and number one in the sport. She won a gold medal during the last Olympic Games in Rio de Janerio .
- Teresa Perales: An example to follow. When she was just 19 years old, she lost the mobility of the upper body, so she focused all her efforts on swimming. This is how she became one of the top female athletes in the world during the Paralympic Games where she won 26 medals.
- Vero Boquete: She is the only Spanish woman who has ever won a Women's Champions League and also the only Spanish woman who has been selected as a candidate to the Golden Ball prize. She is now the ambassador of female football in “La Liga”.
There are also important women in the world of the executive management in sports like Julia Casanueva, who is the president of the Spanish Yachting Federation, or Isabel García Sanz and Hortensia Hermida Torres, who are counterparts in rescue and lawn bowling respectively.
However, there's still a long path to walk, because even if the relevance of women has considerably increased, there's still a huge difference in the number of men and women when it comes to executive roles.
Little by little, women are fighting against the barriers in the sector thanks to their efforts and they are trying to get to a place where there's and even balance, and where their roles are fully recognised within the sports sector.