The jury in charge of ruling this Thursday, the Princess of Asturias Award for Sports 2023 has begun deliberations among the 24 candidacies of 11 nationalities that have been presented this year. In the pools, names like those of the gymnast simon bilesthe athlete Allyson Felixthe marathoner Eliud KipchogI am the tennis player Roger Federer, who hung up the racket last year. Also national candidates: two Olympic champions like Sandra Sánchez (karate) and Carolina Marín (badminton) or the MotoGP rider Marc Márquez.
This award is intended for distinguish the trajectories that through the promotion, development and improvement of sport and through solidarity and commitmenthave become an example of the possibilities that sports practice entails for the benefit of human beings.
Last year, the award went to the Olympic Refugee Foundation and the Refugee Olympic Team, created by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)for the opportunity it offers athletes in conflict zones and places where human rights are violated to develop their sporting and personal activity.
Paralympic swimmer Teresa Perales has confessed that she feels an “enormous responsibility” upon returning to Oviedo, this time to chair the jury for the Princess of Asturias Award for Sports, with which she was distinguished in 2021.
“Now when they present me in the places I am no longer just the Paralympic swimmer, they call me the Princess of Asturias Award for Sports, that opens a door for you and people are more expectant”, the winner of 26 Paralympic medals has admitted. .
Regarding the deliberations, which are secret, he has assured that they are going to be very interesting because there are candidates with “impeccable” sporting and personal trajectories.
The secretary of the jury, Theresa Zabell, has added that there are “very good” candidacies that will make you enjoy the deliberations to analyze the merits of each of the applicants, among whom tomorrow will be chosen a “relevant” athlete and with some “extraordinary” values, the double Olympic sailing champion has assured.
For his part, the tennis player Feliciano López, holder of seven ATP titles in singles, makes his debut as a jury “delighted” to be able to contribute his “experience” and “knowledge” from the world of sports to be able to choose the “best” possible winner, a task that “will not be easy”, since there are “many good” candidates.
The gold medalist at the 2008 Beijing Games Samuel Sánchez, who has been “nervous” and “happy” for his premiere as a jury of the Princess of Asturias Award for Sportshas revealed his “desire” to start the deliberation, see how “everything develops” and “enjoy” in his condition as a former professional athlete a “very high” level of candidacies.
Also making up the jury is the two-time world marathon champion Abel Antón, soccer referee Guadalupe Porras, and international roller hockey players Teresa Bernadas and rugby player Patricia García.
In addition, the director of AS, Vicente Jiménez; the one from Marca, Juan Ignacio Gallardo, Lluis Mascaró, Cristina Cubero, Julián Redondo, Joaquín Folch-Rusiñol and Gemma Castaño.
In previous editions, the American skier was distinguished with this award Lindsey Vonn; the New Zealand men’s rugby team, known as the All Blacks; the triathlete Javier Gómez Noya; the brothers and basketball players Pau and Marc Gasol; the New York Marathon; the Spanish soccer team; the tennis player Rafa Nadal or the Formula One drivers Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso, among others.
The one for Sports will be the fourth of the eight awards convened annually by the Princess of Asturias Foundation to fail, after the one for the Arts has been awarded to the American actress Meryl Streep; that of Communication and Humanities to the Italian philosopher Nuccio Ordine, and that of Social Sciences, to the French historian Hélène Carrère dEncausse.
The awards for Literature (May 24), International Cooperation (June 1), Scientific and Technical Research (June 7) and Concord (June 14) are still pending.