The modernization of sports facilities leads the third episode of the podcast Team Spain

Sustainability, accessibility, energy efficiency and digitalization are the improvement lines that the CSD is promoting to achieve excellence in sports facilities, as stated in the third episode of ‘Team Spain’

In addition, the podcast contains a dialogue between two members of the Spanish taekwondo and parataekwondo team, Laura Rodríguez and Dalia Santiago, who share their experiences and sensations weeks before facing a great competition.

“The Last Minute” reviews the story of Ana Carmona, the first woman to play on a football team, although she had to do it in the guise of a man

Madrid, May 24, 2023.- The Superior Sports Council (CSD) publishes this Wednesday the third episode of the podcast ‘Team España’, focused on the modernization of sports facilities in Spain under the lines of sustainability, accessibility, energy efficiency and digitalization.

One of the priority projects of the CSD is to achieve excellence in the sports centers of our country. The master plan of this project of modernization of the facilities, which is being executed thanks to the funds of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, opens this latest episode of ‘Team Spain’. In it, the Deputy Director-General of Sports Promotion and Innovation, Aitor Canibe, unveils the strategy aimed at modernizing sports facilities, both public and private, throughout the territory and which is based on four lines of action such as sustainability, accessibility, energy efficiency and digitalization.

As for the performances that have already been developed, Canibe highlights the domotization of the Rhythmic Gymnastics room of the High Performance Center (CAR) of Madrid. “We detected a problem and, after working with experts, there has been a complete renovation. Now you can adapt the intensity and the typology of the light depending on the training and needs, something that we want to develop in all CARs”, he said.

In addition, Canibe has explained what will be the main projects that the CSD will promote in the coming months in its facilities. The project with the greatest impact will be the development and rehabilitation of the sports hall of the CAR of Madrid, which will become a space that integrates the academic, sports and research concept. “We want it to be a sports laboratory, a high-performance space and epicenter of high-level research,” he says.

In the CAR, in addition, other projects will be promoted such as the total rehabilitation of the Sports Medicine Center in order to turn it into a center of reference and national and international excellence; the renewal of the track athletics which, thanks to a project carried out in collaboration with the Royal Spanish Athletics Federation, will allow the analysis of the typology of the footsteps of the athletes according to the different modalities and distances. In addition, a reform of the football field will be undertaken to adapt it to the standards that exist today.

Laura Rodríguez and Dalia Santiago, facing the challenge of a great competition

Two members of the Spanish team of Taekwondo and Parataekwondo, Laura Rodríguez and Dalia Santiago, are also protagonists of this episode. Both have in this month of May two of the most important competitions that any elite athlete faces, a World Championship and a European Championship, respectively. Rodriguez will not be able to participate in his own due to a last-minute injury, but tells together with Santiago how the preparation for an appointment of this level is faced.

In addition, in “El Test” both make known their musical tastes, their training preferences and their favorite foods. In the closing section, ‘The Last Minute’, we review the story of Ana Carmona, the first woman to play on a football team in our country, although she had to do it in the guise of a man.

It happened in the 1920s, at the Sporting de Málaga, a club that he came to thanks to a Salesian priest and his grandmother, who helped him to join the team. There she managed to play the sport she was passionate about, although she had to hide her status as a woman. Despite this, her colleagues made it public and, in addition to insults and harassment, she was convicted of disturbing public order. For this reason her parents sent her to Velez-Malaga, the city where she continued to play. Veleta, who was known for her continuous air changes, died very young as a result of fevers. Today she is considered a pioneer of Spanish women’s football.

Podcast ‘Team Spain’

The aim of this podcast is to value sportsmen, coaches, physiotherapists, psychologists, as well as the other figures that are part of the Spanish sports system. The name comes from the aid programs ‘Team Spain Elite’ and ‘Team Spain Strategic Interest’, which the CSD implemented last year, in order to promote the conditions of preparation of Olympic, Paralympic and key specialties to promote the projection of Spanish sport in the world. These programmes are endowed with EUR 16 million per year, 48 in total for 2022, 2023 and 2024.