MADRID, 5 Abr. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The twelfth edition of the FER Project (Promotion of Athletes with Challenges), the program promoted by the Trinidad Alfonso Foundation, an entity chaired by Juan Roig, and which grants economic support and social promotion to athletes in the Valencian Community, will grant scholarships in 2024 to 142 athletes.
The components of the FER 2024 Project are distributed in the three categories that have existed since the origin of the program, in 2013. 42 of them are included in the ‘Elite’ level and will receive aid of between 12,000 and 16,000 euros; 40 belong to the ‘Promises’ category and will receive between 6,000 and 8,000 euros; and 60 are members of the ‘Nursery’ category, who will receive an allocation of 3,000 euros – for those who have achieved national and international results – or 2,000 euros – for those who have met the requirement only in one of these two ways.
In addition, for the seventh consecutive year, the FER Project will maintain the FER Trainers annex, the support line for technicians in the Valencian Community. Depending on the number of trained FER Project athletes and the category to which they belong, scholarships for trainers range between 3,000 and 5,000 euros. On this occasion, there are 17 beneficiaries. Likewise, four clubs have been distinguished as FER Clubs for the number of FER athletes they have in their ranks.
In total, the amount allocated by Juan Roig, president of the Trinidad Alfonso Foundation, for all this aid reaches one million euros. In its twelve editions, Roig has invested more than 12 million euros in the promotion and promotion of athletes through this program, a total of 1,400 scholarships for 470 athletes.
The motto of this edition, focused on the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, will be ‘Chosen for conquest’. The president of the Spanish Olympic Committee (COE), Alejandro Blanco, attended the presentation event; the president of the Spanish Paralympic Committee (CPE), Miguel Carballeda; as well as the presidents of the Spanish Swimming Federations, Fernando Carpena; of Cycling, José Luis López Cerrón; from Remo, Asunción Lorient; from Gymnastics, Jesús Carballo; and Handball, Paco Blázquez. Also present were the president of Villarreal, Fernando Roig; a Valencia Basket delegation led by its president, Vicente Solá; and presidents of the Valencian sports federations.
In an event in which there was no shortage of motivational videos from four Olympic champions such as Fermín Cacho, David Cal, Samuel Sánchez and Ruth Beitia, both Blanco and Carballeda were optimistic about the results that the Spanish delegations can achieve in Paris 2024; The president of the COE opted to exceed the ceiling of the 22 medals of Barcelona ’92, while the president of the CPE believes that the Paralympic athletes in the French capital will be able to improve the 36 medals, nine gold, of Tokyo 2020.
For his part, the director of the Trinidad Alfonso Foundation, Juan Miguel Gómez, reviewed some successes of 2023 such as the Valencia Marathon, “consecrated as one of the best in the world for its participation, for the times achieved by the winners and for the involvement of the city”. “With the Marathon, our land is projected to the world, as is the case with the Fallas. And we continue to advance in our objective of making the event increasingly self-sufficient and sustainable by itself,” he indicated.
The Valencian manager was pleased that “the Valencian territory has granted a large number of Olympic passports in recent months through events as relevant as the Marathon itself, the spectacular rhythmic gymnastics World Cup held in August 2023 or the Hockey Pre-Olympic.” grass”. “And the Olympic tickets for the women’s handball team and the national men’s basketball team are still missing,” he said.
In addition, Gómez stressed the Foundation’s purpose of contributing to the Valencian Community being “a reference nucleus at the national level.” “To achieve this, we rely mainly on three axes: the promotion of grassroots sport, the promotion of elite sport and the attraction of events,” he commented, welcoming the consolidation of ‘Friends of the Community of Esport’, a brand that encompasses new traveling companions of the Foundation in “this adventure of making Valencian sport even bigger.”
Finally, Juan Roig announced that the FER Project will continue in the next Olympic cycle and will be in Los Angeles’28. In addition, he has encouraged Valencian athletes to achieve their challenges, including reaching the Paris Games. “One of the phrases that most impacts me is that it is impossible to defeat someone who never gives up. We all fail, and what our athletes have to do is not give up. If they don’t give up, no one can ever beat them,” he said. .
As wishes for the year 2024, Roig directly aimed for one million euros for breaking the marathon world record in Valencia. “And if it were two million, it would be beautiful. It is one of our great dreams,” he said. “And then, also, having 50 athletes in the Olympic Games. I am proud of the effort that each of our athletes makes.” Regarding companies, he believes that “a businessman can do many things for society and one of them is give”, because “he who has the most is the one who can give the most.” “And we give everything we can,” he concluded.