The Spanish Paralympic team, with 150 athletes at the exciting Paris Games

This Thursday, the Spanish Paralympic team experienced their debut ahead of the exciting Paris Games. From August 28 to September 8 there will be a new edition of the main multi-sports event where Spain will attend with a large delegation.

In an event held at the headquarters of the Higher Sports Council, the president of the Spanish Paralympic Committee, Miguel Carballeda, the deputy director of the entity, Alberto Jofre, and the general director of sports of the CSD, Fernando Molinero, hosted the presentation of national team. It will consist of 150 total athletes, 139 disabled athletes and 11 support staff. They all represented athlete Adi Iglesias, basketball player Pablo Zarzuela and swimmer María Delgado.

“Thank you to those who are here. We have personal stories of great progress and many young people will replace those who are leaving here. We must take care of the young people so that the Paralympic world has a bright future,” said Miguel Carballeda. “From CSD we have continuous and tireless work with CPE. We believe in your values, your efforts and results. We want to continue leading the Paralympic field and contribute everything we can,” said Fernando Molinero.

So, Spain will go to Paris with a large delegation of 259 people in total. In addition to the main protagonists, the athletes, there will be a strong team that will support them. It will consist of 73 technicians and 36 staff, of which 20 of them belong to medical services, physiotherapists and psychologists. In this sense, CPE will build its own clinic in Paris to try to provide the best service to its athletes. This large delegation will mean that Spain will once again have one of the largest delegations at the Olympic event. There are more than 228 members of the complete London 2012 expedition, 201 from Rio 2016 and 229 from Tokyo 2021.

At the level of athletes, Spain will have 38% female participation, five points above Tokyo but still not reaching parity. “In athletics and swimming we exceeded 50% in the total participation of women, but in other sports we are still not classified and we need an effort from the federations,” requested the Paralympic body.

The average age of participation of the Spanish team is 33.2 years, higher than other neighboring countries despite 45 debutants. On this occasion, only 29% of athletes participating in Paris did not have an ADOP Plan, while 96% of athletes with Elite Scholarships achieved passage to Paris. Only the injured Gerard Descarrega was absent. In addition, Catalonia with 29 athletes, Madrid with 26 and Andalusia, the Valencian Community and Galicia with 14 are the communities with the most presence.

A diverse and ambitious team

The Spanish team will have a mix of experience and youth in search of good results in Paris. Their banners at the opening ceremony were judoka Marta Arce and paddler Álvaro Valera, standard bearers and with great additional stories of improvement. With them, the number of Spaniards present was enormous. The long-term Teresa Perales, with twenty-seven medals and one of Michael Phelps’s twenty-eight, or the triathlete Susana Rodríguez Gacio will be the other leaders of the delegation.

Several protagonists shared their feelings before the event in Paris. This is the case of the athlete Adi Iglesias, the wheelchair basketball player Pablo Zarzuela or the swimmer María Delgado. “We always want to be ready, but I’m training hard and I want to experience the Games not like Tokyo, but like the first ones with a family, with an audience. I hope to aim to improve the medals of Tokyo,” said Adi Iglesias, who thanked the sponsors for their support.

Pablo Zarzuela, who is confident in the performance of the basketball team, also appreciates the visibility. “We have shown for several years that we are at a competitive level, with the best shoulders. History does not change after the European gold,” he said. “We are in a kind of generational change for a team with more options and diversity. We can get on the podium again,” he said with a desire to return to the box after fourth place in Tokyo.

Swimmer María Delgado, also a candidate for the Athletes Council of the International Paralympic Committee, was also present at the event. “This is the third Games for me. I am from the AXA promise team, which has been fundamental in developing youth talent and encouraging young people with disabilities to play sports. We were the first and the result has come,” he said about the one of the keys to the growth of the Spanish Paralympic movement.

The countdown to the Paris Games is quickening. Spain, with its large delegation, is aiming for a big list of medals. At Tokyo 2021 there were thirty-six achievements, with nine gold, fifteen silver and twelve bronze.