The headquarters of the Spanish Olympic Committee (COE) in Madrid hosted this Thursday the fifth edition of the Sports Values Gala. The athletes Alejandro Valverde and Laia Palau received their award in the presence of the main sports authorities in the country, such as the president of the COE, Alejandro Blanco, the general director of the Superior Council of Sports, Alberto Soler, and the vice-councilor of Sports of the Community of Madrid, Alberto Tomé.
Cyclist Alejandro Valverde, who announced his retirement at the age of 42 after two decades as a professional and has achieved a total of 133 victories, is the cyclist with the most medals in the history of the World Championships, with a total of seven podiums . For her part, basketball player Laia Palau has also had an impressive career, with 33 titles at club level and a total of 13 medals with the national team, including three golds at the European Championships, a World silver and another silver at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
At the gala, the very young Naia Laso was also honored (Valors a la La Projección award); Real Madrid CF (International Valor Award), Andrea Fuentes (Extraordinary Valor award; Ukrainian soccer player Yanha Malakhova (Special Valor award); the Spanish UNDER-20 Women’s FOOTBALL team, (Women’s National Team Valor award); the Spanish men’s basketball team , (Men’s Team Values award), MotoGp (Event Values award), Anabel Medina (Coach Values award) and Nahuel Carabaña (Sportsmanship Values award).
