MADRID, 19 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The president of the Royal Spanish Athletics Federation (RFEA), Raúl Chapado, celebrated the growth of the “prestige” of Spanish athletics in the last year, thanks to the great results achieved in major championships at the absolute level -with 33 medals and 67 finalists -, at the same time that he assured that in Spain there is no “ecosystem between facilities and institutional support” to organize a great event.
“We have very little responsibility for the great results of great athletes. In the end it is the athlete with his coach, we bottle the good wine, the merit is his. The athletes have grown enormously, not only those who win medals, each one in his own way. level. The athletes are giving their best performance and it is very important,” Chapado said in a meeting with the media on Wednesday.
The leader applauded that “the prestige of the Spanish athlete at an international level” has grown, something that affects the “interest” of sponsorships and fans. “We are the second or third sport that receives the most support because people consume athletics. We have not lost sponsors with the pandemic, they have all renewed. In return for image there is not a large volume of interested companies, there are more personal sponsorships. 65 percent want a specific part of athletics,” he explained.
The good performance in the summer championships of this 2022 has also generated much more enthusiasm and expectation, with “full stadiums”, thanks to a “talented and very competitive” athletics that has emerged in recent years. “Now it’s us they’re looking at, there was a gap between popular and elite athletics. Now you see full stadiums at under-14, under-18, under-23 championships…” he noted.
“All of this transcends, and it is not to the credit of the RFEA, but that the regional ones have improved communication, the streamings have brought the fans closer… There are towns of 100-200 inhabitants that when a test passes through there they are like their Olympic Games. It is a common work, of promotion”, he added.
Chapado recalled how the relationship between athletics and the fan was lost in the past due to “corruption” and “doping”, despite enjoying fantastic generations. “Doping will not disappear, but there is greater credibility and firmness against doping in administrations,” he reflected.
However, one of the pending issues for the coming years is that Spain can host a major championship, something that Chapado ruled out in the short and medium term due to the lack of facilities for it. “The most important thing we have is the European Federations Championship, in Vallehermoso. If we talk about track championships, Valencia is the one with the best conditions. Outdoors is Montjuic, but it will be difficult to do something, and the other is Sevilla. We don’t have facilities to host a big event,” he lamented.
“We are an expensive sport, the budgets are in the 100 million for a World Cup and for a European, 30-40, shooting low. I do not see that ecosystem between facilities and institutional support to organize it. There is no philosophy of a great event now same”, he insisted, before advancing that 336 events have been organized this year, although “few of the highest level”.
However, the RFEA does consider carrying out initiatives in emblematic places in the days before a certain level event, as the Diamond League already did. Thus, for the Madrid Meeting, an activity could be prepared with athletes in locations such as the Royal Palace. “For us it is an obligation, but it is a very expensive investment, with a budget that is what the Meeting costs us. But it is interesting within our budget planning. Using the historical heritage seems spectacular to me and it is a challenge,” he commented.
Asked about the naturalization of Jordan Díaz, Chapado reported that he requested it in February and “it has been delayed a bit”, since it is still “under review”. “We will know in a month, or even sooner. I would like him to compete with Spain as soon as possible,” he confessed.
33 MEDALS AND 67 FINALISTS IN 2022
On the other hand, the Spanish athletics coach, José Peiró, addressed the issue of the selection process, which has generated “logical” criticism, because “there are always people who do not agree.” “I always work with the premise of being as fair as possible and sleeping peacefully. We are always constantly improving the selection criteria. There will be some change, such as the requirement of a minimum mark in a certain brand that shows that we will publish,” he advanced.
Before answering the questions from the media, Chapado took stock of the season, in which, thanks to a new structure of four areas -high performance, sports development, ‘athletic tech’ and ‘coaching strategy’- 33 medals and 67 finalist positions in the major championships at the absolute level. This generates a “sensation of high competitiveness of the national team.”
“If someone does the pools, in the end Spain is positioned at the top, in Munich we were third. Spain is in the second level of Europe, behind the United Kingdom, on equal terms with France and Italy,” analyzed the leader, who predicted a “more global” athletics in the coming years, with greater difficulty in winning medals. .
Chapado highlighted the 124 Spanish records that have been broken in 2022, compared to 103 last year, with a total of 767 in the last five years. This reflects the “excellent work that is being done on the field.” “We see impressive growth,” he applauded.
In addition, in the federal field, for the first time in history, 100,000 licenses (103,020) are exceeded, with a significant increase of 23 percent in the regional sphere and with great importance of day licenses. Already in the economic field, the investment in 2022 was 15.7 million euros, recovering price levels from the pandemic, while in 2021 it was 12 million. This means an increase of almost 31 percent, with an RFEA without debt at this time.
Regarding aid to athletes, Spain is one of the countries that allocates the most to this section, exceeding 3 million and with a rise of 110.4 percent compared to the previous year. “There have never been so many resources, not even in Barcelona 92, in athletics,” he stressed. In addition, for the Team Spain Elite program, aimed at athletes with the greatest options at the Games based on their previous results, it will have more than 7 million, two more than in 2021.