Rodríguez Uribes present in Torrent the launch of the Paralympic Draft

Torrent (Valencia), November 8, 2025.- The president of the Higher Sports Council (CSD), José Manuel Rodríguez Uribes, has witnessed in the City of Sport of Torrent (Valencia) the development of the Paralympic Draft, an initiative that has aimed to know the skills of thirty young people with disabilities to introduce them to the discipline that best suits their profiles.

Organized by the Spanish Paralympic Committee (CPE), with the support of CaixaBank and the Trinidad Alfonso Foundation, this activity has brought together boys and girls with physical, visual or cerebral palsy in the presence of the general director of Sports of the Generalitat Valenciana, Luis Cervera; the director of the Trinidad Alfonso Foundation, Juan Miguel Gómez; the director of Institutions of CaixaBank in the Valencian Community, Jaime Casas; the general director of the CPE, Torj

José Manuel Rodríguez Uribes has highlighted “the importance of public-private collaboration” in the development of this type of activities. “Without that synergy,” he said, “Spanish sport would not be what it is.”

The president of the CSD also recalled that “the new Sports Law enshrines, for the first time, sport as a universal right for all people, whether they have disabilities or not”, thanking the Spanish Paralympic Committee for the implementation of this type of initiative.

The Paralympic Draft, a platform for attracting talent

After a brief warm-up, the participants in this day have undergone various tests and games aimed at measuring their performance in different areas, such as strength, speed, acceleration, flexibility, aerobic resistance, balance and coordination.

Next, the pledge pickers of the different Paralympic sports have analysed these results and determined in which disciplines the potential of each participant could be best exploited.

Already in the afternoon, in the different facilities of the City of Sport, the young participants in the Paralympic Draft have been given the opportunity to practice those modalities that could best fit their skills: athletics, badminton, cycling, climbing, swimming, canoeing, rowing, table tennis, archery and triathlon.

The thirty young people have had the opportunity throughout the day to live together with outstanding Paralympic athletes such as the cyclist Ricardo Ten, winner of eleven metals in Games; the triathlete Héctor Catalá, runner-up in the Tokyo 2020 event, and the world athletics medallist Judith Tortosa, who explained their way to the high level, encouraging them to become future stars.

The Paralympic Draft held in Torrent was made possible thanks to the collaboration of the Trinidad Alfonso Foundation.

“Since our origins, one of the main focuses of the Foundation has been and continues to be the promotion of grassroots sport. And not only for the benefits it offers, but also to sow for the future, to contribute so that the child who at 6-7 years of age falls in love with any modality can become a great sportsman,” said Juan Miguel Gómez, director of the Foundation.

The detection of these young people has been carried out through the program Our Next Star, an initiative of the Spanish Paralympic Committee that is aimed at attracting young talent throughout Spain and that has the support of CaixaBank. The financial institution, in addition to sponsoring the ADOP Plan and the Team of Paralympic Promises of triathlon, also bets on the initiation in sport of children and young people with disabilities so that they may become part of the Spanish team in future Paralympic Games.

According to Jaime Casas, CaixaBank’s Director of Institutions in the Valencian Community, “the Our Next Star project fits perfectly with CaixaBank’s sponsorship strategy, which focuses on sport as a driver of social transformation”. “This program, in particular, allows us to support young talents with disabilities, accompany them in their development and give visibility to stories that deserve to be told. And many of them are accompanied by their families, who are undoubtedly their first team, their greatest support and their constant source of motivation,” he said.

On this occasion, the organization of the day has been in charge of the Valencian Community Paralympic Relay, a joint initiative of the regional government and the Spanish Paralympic Committee, in coordination with the paralympic federations, whose objective is to attract young people with disabilities to begin in sports practice.

The general director of Sports of the Generalitat Valenciana, Luis Cervera, stressed that “the event is special” because “for there to be stars in the sport there has to be a previous work”. “First of attraction and then of detection and capture. Today we are laying the seeds for a harvest of the future because I am sure that some great paralympic athlete will come from here,” he said.

For his part, Francisco Botía, director of the Spanish Paralympic Committee, commented: “We want this to be the paralympic sports festival in the Valencian Community.” And addressing the participating boys and girls, he added: “You are the great protagonists of a project that excites us, that we are passionate about, because you are the future of paralympic sport in Spain.”

In the celebration of this day, the territorial paralympic federations, the Cermi-Valencian Community, the City of Torrent and the association Apda Aspe and its Sports Shuttle project, among other entities, have also collaborated.