A former Navy pilot and one of the first female professional soccer coaches, Campos leads initiatives for empowerment
The president of the CSD highlights that it is the first gold of the ROMD awarded within the ‘Equals for Sport’ strategy
MADRID, 8 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The president of the Higher Sports Council (CSD), José Manuel Franco, presented this Tuesday the Gold Medal of the Royal Order of Sports Merit to Patricia Campos, former Navy pilot, soccer coach and women’s rights activist and LGBTI people.
Franco has delivered this distinction in a ceremony held at the headquarters of the organization attended by more than a hundred athletes from the Madrid High Performance Center, in the context of the Women’s Week organized by the CSD.
Patricia Campos was the first Spanish woman to pilot a jet during her career in the Navy. After leaving the military in 2013, she began coaching professional soccer in the United States, becoming one of the first women to coach a professional team, the Honolulu Bulls Soccer Club.
In her autobiographical book ‘Tierra, mar y aire’, she publicly declared that she was a lesbian and claimed the rights of women and LGTBI people. Through her NGO ‘Goals For Freedom’, she collaborates with the empowerment of girls, boys and women in Uganda to promote change in society through football.
And through the Supera-t Project, it promotes events where equality is promoted through sport, the elimination of barriers based on sex and gender, and female leadership is contributed.
As the Secretary of State for Sport has explained, this is the first ROMD Gold Medal to be awarded within the framework of the ‘Equals in Sport’ strategy, the set of initiatives and campaigns of the CSD to promote gender equality , LGTBI diversity and sports practiced by people with disabilities, launched in recent weeks.
“Today, 8M, we deliver the one dedicated to the promotion of women in sports; on June 28 we will do it to those who fight against discrimination against LGBT people in sports; and on December 3, International Day of Persons with Disabilities , we will make it a benchmark in inclusion through sport”, Franco has advanced.
Likewise, the president of the CSD has wished that these three annual recognitions in favor of equality go beyond his mandate. Regulated by Royal Decree 1523/1982, of June 18, the Order of Sports Merit is a public recognition of those who have distinguished themselves in the practice of sport, in the promotion and teaching of physical education or in research, dissemination, organization and development of physical culture and sport.