Milagros Tolón: “Oriol Cardona has signed a triumph for history. Spain is back at the top”

• “Following the Spanish mountain ski team has been seeing the culmination of a perfect process of delivery, technique and determination. We knew we were experiencing something special,” said the head of the Sports portfolio.

Madrid, February 19, 2026.- The Minister of Education, Vocational Training and Sports, Milagros Tolón, celebrated with emotion the historic day lived by the Spanish team at the Winter Olympics, with the conquest of a gold medal, a bronze medal and a diploma in mountain skiing, a discipline that in Milan-Cortina de Ampezzo debuts in the Olympic program.

Present in Bormio, where he has followed the extraordinary performance of the Spanish team, Milagros Tolón has described the results as a “gesture for remembrance”. “Following the Spanish mountain ski team has been seeing the culmination of a perfect process of delivery, technique and determination. We knew we were experiencing something special,” said the head of the Sports portfolio.
 

Milagros Tolón also recalled that today the Spanish sport has put an end to “fifty-four years of waiting” and honored the “historical legacy of Paquito Fernández Ochoa”, whom Oriol Cardona emulated this Thursday by winning the second gold medal of Spain in a Winter Olympic Games. To this has been added the bronze of Ana Alonso and the diploma of Ot Ferrer, which has been fifth. “All of them have moved us, putting the Spanish sport on the path to success. It is a triumph for history and a gesture for remembrance. Spain is back at the top”, Milagros Tolón has abounded.
 

In the same vein, the President of the Higher Sports Council (CSD), José Manuel Rodríguez Uribes, expressed from Madrid his satisfaction at “one of those days that are engraved forever in the collective memory of Spanish sport.” “We have heard our anthem again at the top of the podium in some Winter Games, something that did not happen since the unforgettable gesture of Paquito Fernández Ochoa in Sapporo 1972. Oriol Cardona has given us a gold that excites us, that unites us and that inspires an entire country,” he said.
 

Rodríguez Uribes also wanted to highlight the deep meaning of the bronze conquered by Ana Alonso: “Ana is much more than a medal. It is a lesson of life. Just a few months ago he was recovering from a serious accident and today he is on an Olympic podium. His strength, his determination and his faith in himself, as I was able to express to him personally during one of his trainings at the High Performance Center of the Superior Sports Council in Sierra Nevada, represent the best of Spanish sport.” In addition, the president of the CSD has congratulated Ot Ferrer on his Olympic diploma: “Ot has shown that the future is already present. His fifth place confirms the enormous level of this team and the solidity of a project that continues to grow.”

Mountain skiing is an emerging discipline in which Spain has demonstrated its enormous competitive potential from the very beginning. In this sense, the CSD has made a determined and sustained commitment to this modality through the support of the Spanish Federation of Mountain Sports and Climbing (FEDME), the only of the 66 national sports federations with representation in the Summer and Winter Olympic Games. The regular subsidy to this federation has gone from 604,077 euros in 2018 to 2,580,537
euros in 2025, which means quadrupling the investment in seven years.

This budgetary increase has allowed us to strengthen the technical structures, promote technical and high performance programs, improve the preparation of our athletes and consolidate a solid base of young talents in their two Olympic specialties - climbing and mountain skiing.

“These results are not the result of chance. They are the result of the tireless dedication of our athletes, the impeccable work of the federation and its technicians, and a sustained strategic commitment over time. When Spain believes in a discipline, supports it and plans it with ambition and vision for the future, the results arrive. Today we celebrate medals, but we also celebrate a country model that is committed to sport as a collective project,” said Rodríguez Uribes.

The Spanish delegation will have a new opportunity to expand its brilliant performance in these Winter Olympic Games of Milan-Cortina d’Ampezzo 2026 with the dispute this Saturday of the mixed relay of mountain skiing, in what is undoubtedly the best historical participation of Team Spain in a Winter Olympic Games.