The CAR was able to stage an idea with almost a decade of travel launched by the Sanitas Foundation, whose seed was the Week of Inclusive Sports and which led to this historic project where Spanish athletes were able to compete without labels for several hours and in various disciplines.
A competition that has been able to see the light thanks to the joint work of the Sanitas Foundation Chair for Inclusive Sports Studies and the national sports and disability federations involved, which have adapted the regulations of these nine sports for a day in which the most sports and equality have been important.
Thus, from the inauguration at around 4:00 p.m. by Saúl Craviotto, Sara Andrés Barrio, Jairo Ruiz, Carolina Marín, Eva Moral and Chema Martínez, until sunset, more than a hundred athletes, and also former athletes, met in the facilities of the Superior Sports Council to enjoy a magnificent sporting afternoon competing together in athletics, badminton, chair basketball, judo, swimming, rugby, taekwondo, table tennis and duathlon.
On a sporting level, gold in badminton went to the couple made up of Pablo Abián and Adriana Rissi, while judo produced a quadruple tie with victory for its eight participants, including Marta Arce, Sergio Ibáñez, silver in the Paralympic Games of Tokio, and Niko Sherazadhisvili, current world champion.
In table tennis, Miguel Ángel Toledo, Eduardo Cuesta, Carlos Caballero and Pilar González took the victory and in chair basketball, despite the participation of Felipe Reyes, the team formed by Genoveva Tapia, Sonia Ruiz, Carlos prevailed. Manuel Martínez, Óscar Onrubia and Iñaki de Miguel.
Marina García, Alberto Martínez, Nahia Zudaire, Enrique Alhambra, Lidon Muñoz, Marcos Martín and Aitana Estrada, with Toni Ponce, a double Paralympic medalist, as captain, won in the pool where figures such as the Olympians Jessica Vall and Nicolás García and the Paralympic Nuria Marquès, and on the taekwondo mat the winners were Cecilia Castro, Adrián Vicente and Javier Pérez. Finally, Martín Fernández, Sergio Juárez, Alba Borrero and Sara Andrés shone in the tartan.
In addition, despite not competing, the Olympic medalists Ana Peleteiro and Adriana Cerezo, the former national selector Vicente del Bosque, the ex-cyclist Pedro Delgado or the former athlete Chema Martínez also supported the event. Among the political personalities, the Deputy Mayor of Madrid, Begoña Villacís, and Marta Rivera de la Cruz, Minister of Culture, Tourism and Sports of the Community of Madrid attended.
“A VERY NICE TEN YEARS DREAM”
“This is a very nice ten-year dream when we started with this project. Then there has been training, a lot of research and this was lacking. I think this is going to be the norm in 20 years. We would have liked to have three or four thousand people watching them, but the rest has gone well and as planned, “said Iñaki Ereño, CEO of Bupa.
In addition, Iñaki Peralta, CEO of Sanitas and Bupa Europe & LatinAmerica, acknowledged that he had slept “badly” these days due to nervousness. “After many years in inclusive sports, having a historic milestone for all of us who make up Sanitas and Fundación Sanitas this is a ‘gift’,” he said.
“This was a dream and we did not know if we would ever achieve it, but Sanitas dared to take the step and has added so much to see equality. With this we are doing a little better for our country,” admitted Miguel Carballeda, president of the Committee Spanish Paralympic (CPE).
For the leader, approaching total equality requires that “things be done normally, that there is accessibility and equal opportunities.” “That we forget in our heads the mental barriers that sometimes limit us without any need. In Spain there are more than four million people with disabilities and another 42 who do not have it and could have it, so how much better can it be? society, better for those who come after, “he remarked.
“These Inclusive Games are an ambitious project that closes the Olympic and Paralympic cycle in Tokyo with a finishing touch for the sport of our country,” assured his counterpart from the Spanish Olympic Committee (COE), Alejandro Blanco.
Finally, José Manuel Franco, president of the CSD, celebrated “a historic day for sport, not only in Spain but in the world. This is an example of the search for real equality, something in which Spain has advanced a lot, but where there is still a long way to go. The Government has turned to this search and this is the best example, but without the collaboration of Sanitas it would not be possible. It is a magnificent day for Spanish sports, “he stressed.
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