Lucía Alejo Molero balanced a demanding nursing shift at a hospital in the Manchegan capital with a fourth-place finish in compound archery at the Spanish National Archery Championship over the weekend. The Club El Águila Imperial archer competed in the qualification round on Friday, traveled to Toledo for a hospital night shift, and returned to the field the following morning.
The tournament, held on the rugby fields of the Complutense University of Madrid’s South Complex, featured national title victories for Leyre Fernández and Miguel Alvariño in the recurve absolute divisions. While elite athletes like Fernández and Alvariño fulfilled expectations in Madrid, the wider weekend highlighted how archers across Spain integrate demanding professional careers and family responsibilities with high-level competition.
Alejo Molero operated far from the media spotlight, focusing on her arrows between medical duties. Her performance placed her fourth in the compound discipline, demonstrating an unusual level of time management between clinical healthcare and competitive sport.
Other competitors face similar hurdles. Magalí Foulon maintained a 15-year career on the national team and continues to compete while raising two children. Ahead of the recurve finals, both Fernández and Nerea López Sanchis discussed the intense psychological demands of the sport. Fernández noted that while the point of strength is the training routine, the point of weakness is the effort and tension supported in competition. López Sanchis, a student of psychology, pointed to the mental discipline required to manage that tension under tournament conditions.
Bringing Archery to Pantersports
Roser Salas and Rubén Darío Costa represented the Club Arc de Montjüic in Catalonia to Madrid with two distinct goals: competing in the national tournament and finalizing plans to introduce archery to Pantersports.
Pantersports is an international multisport, cultural, and inclusive event scheduled for September 17. Organized alongside Panteras Amarillas—a Barcelona association promoting safe sport for the LGTBIQ+ community—the upcoming festival will feature archery on its active program for the first time.
Salas emphasized that the tournament is open to all participants without gender separation, categorizing competitors solely by equipment type, including compound, recurve, traditional, and longbow divisions. Costa emphasized the necessity of secure sporting environments for the community, pointing out that elite athletes often face obstacles when attempting to live and compete openly.
A Historic Legacy in Barcelona
Club Arc de Montjüic preserves a notable piece of Olympic history: the bow and arrow used by Antonio Rebollo to light the Olympic cauldron at Montjüic Stadium on July 25, 1992. Thirty years after those Barcelona Games, the club is applying that same spirit of visibility to its collaboration with Pantersports, creating a structured platform designed to combat homophobia within sport.
The inclusion of archery in the September event marks a practical step toward broadening access, running parallel to the individual journeys of athletes like Alejo Molero, Foulon, and the national champions crowned in Madrid.
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