ZARAGOZA, 28 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Spanish swimmer Teresa Perales discovered this Thursday “excited and grateful from the heart” the statue that she will have in her native Zaragoza, after an initiative led by the City Council and the technology company ‘Visa’.
This bronze statue dedicated to the winner of 27 Paralympic medals and the 2021 Princess of Asturias Award for Sports, which is located in the park that also bears her name in the city, is the work of the Valencian hyperrealist sculptor Javier Molina and shows her swimming at butterfly.
Teresa Perales discovered the sculpture together with her son Mariano in an emotional act in which she was accompanied by her husband and mother, together with the mayor of Zaragoza, Jorge Azcón, the presidents of the CSD and the Spanish Paralympic Committee (CPE), José Manuel Franco and Miguel Carballeda, Ricardo Leyva, representing the Spanish Olympic Committee, and Eduardo Prieto, from ‘Visa España’.
The sculpture also has the particularity of having been made with the bronze of the first medal that Perales won representing Spain in some World Championships in 1998, which caused the Aragonese woman to “begin to dream that one day” she could “reach the Paralympic Games”.
Likewise, Perales was happy that thanks to this sculpture he will “be swimming like a butterfly forever” and for being able to see it when it is still competing. “This way I can enjoy it and savor it much more,” he celebrated, confessing that when he found out about this initiative, the first thing he thought of was how lucky his mother was to see this recognition in person and to be able to share it with his loved ones.
“On the way, what you stay with is the people who accompany you, empowering you and the people who don’t let you down,” added the Zaragoza native, who thanked ‘Visa’ for their support. “Athletes who compete in individual sports surround ourselves with a great team and mine starts with ‘Visa’, as well as my family, friends, coaches and technical team,” warned Perales, who was accompanied at the event by Saúl Craviotto, also member of ‘Team Visa’. “It is the first sponsorship that I have seen that has put the Olympic and Paralympic teams on the same scale, it has never made any distinction,” said the swimmer.
For his part, the mayor of Zaragoza, Jorge Azcón, defended that the winner of 27 Paralympic medals has become a legendary athlete due to the values of “effort, sacrifice, tenacity and the desire to excel” that accompany her in her sports career. and that they are the ones who “make their history authentic”.
The councilor recalled that “the success story” of the swimmer is marked by her values, “which makes her a legend, at the level of Pau Gasol or Rafa Nadal” and assured that the history of overcoming the Aragonese is “unique “because she herself has decided to share it with society in general to help others improve themselves and become better people and athletes. “And that is what makes us in Zaragoza especially proud of Teresa Perales,” he added.
This initiative has been financed by the technology company Visa to thank the swimmer for her commitment as an ambassador of ‘Team Visa’ and for her work, effort and achievements during her more than three decades of sports career, also wanting to recognize her most human facet.
The person in charge of eternally immortalizing Teresa Perales’s swimming has been the Valencian Javier Molina, who has previously made sculptures of other Spanish athletes and who acknowledged that this work has been “a very big challenge” due to the difficulty of “getting the essence of an elite swimmer” in the middle of “a moment of effort.
For his part, the president of the Higher Sports Council, José Manuel Franco, stressed that Teresa Perales, despite having already received “the highest award” such as the Grand Cross of the Royal Order of Sports Merit, “deserves much more because it is an example and a benchmark for Spanish society”. “Teresa is an example of life, improvement and the values of sport,” he said.
In addition, the president of the Spanish Paralympic Committee, Miguel Carballeda, highlighted that when society can see athletes like Perales through the media, it makes them consider the following: “If Teresa can, my son with a disability will be able to do it the day in the morning”.
Finally, the general director of ‘Visa’ in Spain, Eduardo Prieto, appealed to the years of “sacrifice, humility and resilience” of Perales. “Sport is a catalyst for effort and commitment,” she said, while referring to the Aragonese swimmer as an “excellent professional and athlete, but a better person.”