Los Reyes presents the National Sports Awards corresponding to 2023 and 2024
- These awards, which since 1982 have been granted by the Government of Spain through the Superior Sports Council (CSD), recognize the people and entities that have distinguished themselves most in the competition or in the promotion of sport.
- Footballers Rodrigo Hernández ‘Rodri’ and Aitana Bonmatí were the winners of the Rey Felipe and Reina Letizia Awards for 2023, while athletes Álvaro Martín and María Pérez achieved these same distinctions as best individual athletes in 2024.
- The event was held at the El Pardo Palace in the presence of the Minister of Education, Vocational Training and Sports, Milagros Tolón, and the President of the Higher Sports Council, José Manuel Rodríguez Uribes.
Madrid, February 11, 2026.- Their Majesties the Kings presided this Wednesday at the Palacio de El Pardo (Madrid) the ceremony for the award of the National Sports Awards, with which the Government of Spain annually recognizes through the Superior Sports Council (CSD) the people and entities that have distinguished themselves most in the competition or in the promotion of sport.
Presented in the presence of the Minister of Education, Vocational Training and Sports, Milagros Tolón, and the President of the CSD, José Manuel Rodríguez Uribes, the National Sports Awards corresponding to 2023 and 2024 gave the highest category to footballers Rodrigo Hernández ‘Rodri’ and Aitana Bonmatí and athletes Álvaro Martín and María Pérez, winners respectively of the Rey Felipe and Reina Letizia Awards as the best Spanish athletes in the male and female category.
Rodri achieved in 2023 the Premier League, the Champions League and the England Cup with Manchester City and conquered with the Spanish team the League of Nations. These titles earned him the nomination for the Ballon d’Or, which he won a year later.
For her part, Aitana Bonmatí enshrined in 2023 her status as an undisputed figure at an international level when she won the World Cup with the selection. With FC Barcelona he added the Champions League, the F League and the Queen’s Cup to his list of winners, as well as winning the first of his three Ballons d’Or that same year.
Álvaro Martín and María Pérez, for their part, made history in 2024 by conquering together the Olympic gold in the mixed relay of the Paris Games, in which they also individually achieved a bronze and a silver, respectively, in the test of the 20 kilometers march.
The Princess Leonor Award, which recognizes the best athlete under the age of 18, has gone to the 2023 edition of the basketball player Iyana Martín. The young woman achieved silver in that year in the U19 World Cup in Hungary - in which she was also elected MVP - and achieved bronze in the U18 European Championship in Turkey.
In its 2024 edition, this prize has been awarded to basketball player Awa Fam, who won the Eurobasket U-18 and U-20 championship titles with the Spanish team, in addition to being chosen as part of the ideal quintet and MVP, respectively.
The Infanta Sofía Award, which highlights the promotion of sport by people with disabilities, has fallen to the 2023 edition of the Spanish Committee of Representatives of People with Disabilities (CERMI), for its contribution and support to public policies to promote inclusion. In particular, during the process of elaboration and regulatory development of the new Sports Law.
Ricardo Ten has been recognized with this award in the 2024 edition. That year, in the context of the Paralympic Games in Paris, he won three medals – a gold, a silver and a bronze – which are already part of an outstanding list of winners.
Champion of the junior world of cross snowboarding (SBX) in Italy and silver at the World Cup in Veysonnaz (Switzerland), Álvaro Romero has won the King Juan Carlos Award, which recognizes the athlete revelation of 2023.
The footballer Lamine Yamal has deserved this same award in the edition corresponding to 2024, when he was proclaimed champion of the European Championship with the Spanish national team - being the youngest player to achieve it. He was named Best Young Player of the Tournament and also won the Kopa Trophy for Best Young Player of FIFA.
A gesture as human as it is sporty has made the athlete Ricardo Rosado holder of the Reina Sofía Award, which highlights fair play and the values of sport. In the year 2023, in the Malaga marathon and a few meters from the finish line, the Spanish athlete decided to give his fifth place to the Kenyan Kimtai Kiprono, who had led the race for much of the route and was in trouble, thus giving up the economic prize.
Paula Leitón has been the winner of the same prize in the edition corresponding to 2024. After winning Olympic gold at the Paris Games, the waterpolist suffered a campaign of harassment on social media because of her physique. He responded by claiming the diversity of bodies and fighting against gordophobia and hate speeches inside and outside the sport.
The athlete Marileidy Paulino has won the Ibero-American Community Trophy, which recognizes the best athlete or entity in Ibero-America. Paulino became the World Athletics Championships of Budapest 2023 in the first Dominican in twenty years to conquer the title of individual world champion, dominating the test of 400 meters.
In the edition corresponding to 2024, this award has been awarded to the Brazilian gymnast Rebeca Rodrigues de Andrade, who made history at the Paris Olympic Games by obtaining four medals: gold on the ground, silver in individual competition and in foal jump and bronze in team competition.
The European Union Trophy, intended for the best athlete, team or entity from another EU member country, has fallen to the European team that won the Solheim Golf Cup of 2023. This edition, played in Andalusia, had as its main protagonist the Spanish Carlota Ciganda.It was she who scored the decisive point against the United States.
Femke Bol has been awarded this recognition in the 2024 edition. A year in which the Dutch athlete amassed an impressive record, with gold, silver and bronze at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
The Spanish women's football team, world champion in 2023, has won the Barón de Güell Cup, which rewards the best team or selection. It recognises a generation that has already become a legend and a reference, which won in Australia the first absolute world title in the history of Spanish women’s football.
In the 2024 edition, this prize has been awarded to the Spanish women's water polo team, gold medalist at the Paris Olympic Games, silver in the European Championship in Eindhoven and bronze in the Doha World Championship.
The Stadium Cup, which values the people or institutions that have contributed most to the promotion of grassroots sport, has fallen to the edition of the National Sports Awards of 2023 in the figure of Antonio Sabugueiro, founder and organizer of the San Silvestre Vallecana Internacional y Popular.
The Ricky Rubio Foundation, for its part, has been the recipient of the 2024 Stadium Cup. That year he presented the Lung Fit project, an initiative that seeks to integrate physical exercise into cancer treatment to improve the quality of life of patients with lung cancer. In addition, the foundation stands out for its support for basketball programs for children from vulnerable neighborhoods and for promoting sport as a tool for social inclusion.
The City Council of Gandía has been recognized with the Superior Sports Council Award as the Spanish local entity that has most contributed to the promotion of sport in 2023. In addition to dedicating more than 200,000 euros to the support of grassroots clubs and celebrating more than a thousand sports activities during that year, it has been an example of implementation of the NextGenerationEU funds with the creation of innovative spaces for urban sports, such as the skate park that is already a national reference.
This same prize, corresponding to 2024, has been awarded to the Tarragona City Council. During that year, the capital of Tarragona hosted more than half a hundred sporting events that brought together more than 36,000 athletes and generated an economic impact of almost 10 million euros.
The CAFYD Faculty of the University of Extremadura has won the Joaquín Blume Trophy, which highlights the schools that have contributed most to the promotion of sport. UEX was the best ranked Spanish university in the Shanghai Ranking of Sport Science Schools of Departments in 2023, being the thirteenth best rated university in the world.
In the 2024 edition, the University of Murcia (UMU) and Catholic University of Murcia (UCAM) have won that award ex aequo.
The UMU has launched the UMUSALUD project, a program of healthy exercise in the work environment, which already benefits more than 22% of the workers of this public university of Murcia, a city that commemorated in 2025 its 1,200 years of history.
UCAM’s achievements include leadership in the Spanish University Championships and a significant presence in the Endesa Basketball League and in sports such as table tennis and football. In addition, it was the university of the world with the highest participation in Paris 2024, with 65 athlete scholarships, which achieved five golds, five degrees, seven bronzes and 45 diplomas.
For its contribution to the dissemination of physical and sporting activity, the National Prize for the Arts and Sciences Applied to Sport has fallen in its 2023 edition to Pedro Chueca, physiotherapist of the Spanish football team for more than two decades.
In the 2024 edition, the award was given to the traumatologist Pedro Luis Ripoll, founder of the Spanish Society of Arthroscopic Surgery, member of the Medical-Scientific Commission of the Royal Spanish Football Federation and director of the medical services of football clubs such as Elche, Almería or Hercules. He is a regular consultant for sports clubs of the highest international level.
Finally, Alejandro Abascal and Alberto Jofre won the Francisco Fernández Ochoa National Award in 2023 and 2024, respectively, for a lifetime dedicated to sport.
Alejandro Abascal participated in the 1976, 1980 and 1984 Olympic Games, winning the first gold medal in Spanish sport in Moscow in 1980 in flying dutchman (sailing), as well as two medals in the 1978 and 1979 World Championships. His most outstanding contribution was as sporting and technical director of the Royal Spanish Sailing Federation and the Prince Felipe Specialized High Performance Sailing Center, between 1996 and 2015, when Spain experienced its best stage in Olympic sailing.
Alberto Jofre, for his part, has been managing director of the Spanish Paralympic Committee for thirty years. Considered the greatest expert in paralympic sport in our country, under his direction more than 840 medals have been achieved in different Games. He was also the promoter of the ADOP Plan. Previously, as a swimmer, he competed at the 1984 New York Paralympic Games, where he achieved four medals and a world record.
More than four decades of National Sports Awards
Established in 1982, the National Sports Awards have recognized during the last four decades athletes such as Blanca Fernández Ochoa, Arantxa Sánchez Vicario, Gemma Mengual, Sandra Sánchez, Alexia Putellas or Susana Rodríguez, in the female category, and Miguel Indurain, Pau Gasol, Rafa Nadal, Marc Márquez, Saúl Craviotto, Jon Rahm or Carlos Alcaraz, in the male category.
These awards distinguish those athletes, associations, entities and people who have stood out for the promotion and promotion of physical activity and sport.
They are, along with the awards of the Real Orden del Mérito Deportivo (medals, plates and Gran Cruz), the greatest recognitions of the State in sports matters. They are granted by the Government of Spain through the Superior Sports Council.