King Felipe and Queen Letizia of Spain had their annual appointment with the handing out of the National Awards for Sports.
On 18 April, Their Majesties welcomed authorities and award recipients at El Pardo Royal Palace in Madrid, where the ceremony is traditionally held. They were accompanied by the Minister of Sports, the President of the Superior Council of Sports, and the Presidents of the Spanish Olympic and Paralympic Committees, among others.
The King and Queen handed out awards in 13 different categories, six of which are named after members of the Royal Family:
- the King Felipe Prize went to the best Spanish male sportsman of the year and was awarded to golf player Jon Rahm Rodríguez for his victory in the US Open and his first-ranking position;
- the Queen Letizia Prize is awarded to the best sportswoman of the year and went to Alexia Putellas for her brilliant career in feminine football, which also included winning two consecutive Golden Ballon d’Or;
- the King Juan Carlos Prize is awarded to the sportsman revelation of the year and went to Alberto Ginés for his victory in the first Olympic climbing competition in Tokyo;
- the Queen Sofía Prize is awarded to any person or organisation that promotes fair play and the eradication of any forms of violence in sports and went to the Navarra Sports Institute for its work in fostering mediation and integration through sports;
- the Princess Leonor Prize is awarded to the best sportsman or woman under 18 and went to taekwondo player Adriana Cerezo, who won a silver in the Tokyo Olympics and a gold in the European Championships;
- the Infanta Sofía Prize is awarded to any person or entity that has promoted the inclusion through sports of people with disabilities and went to the Toledo National Hospital for Paraplegics for their effort in promoting sports as therapy for treating patients with spinal cord injuries.
Other prizes were the Latin-American Community Trophy, for sportspeople from Latin America, the Barón de Güell Cup for best team, the Stadium Cup for entities promoting sports, the Superior Council of Sports Prize for any Spanish local institution that promotes sports and physical activity, the Joaquín Blume Trophy for educational institutions that promote sports, the National Prize for Arts and Sciences Applied to Sports for people or entities that promote dissemination about sports, and the Francisco Fernández Ochoa National Prize for careers dedicated to sports.
Following the ceremony, King Felipe and Queen Letizia took some time to chat with the award winners, authorities, and some of the people who picked up the prizes for the recipients who couldn’t be present.
