The kings of Spain award the best athletes, including the Dominican Marileidy Paulino

Madrid.- The kings of Spain awarded the best athletes of 2023 and 2024 this Wednesday, including Dominican athlete Marileidy Paulino, who received the Ibero-American Community Trophy of 2023 in recognition of the successes achieved that year, in which she won the gold medal in the 400 meters at the Budapest World Championships.

Paulino, 29, became the first woman from the Caribbean country to stand on the top of the podium at a World Athletics Championships, a success she repeated the following year at the Paris Olympic Games.

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The athlete could not attend the ceremony held at the Palacio de El Pardo in Madrid and it was the Dominican Republic’s ambassador to Spain, Tony Raful, who collected the award on her behalf, presented by King Felipe and Queen Letizia in the presence of the Spanish Minister of Education, Vocational Training and Sports, Milagros Tolón. The Ibero-American Community Trophy recognizes the athlete who has stood out the most during the year in the international arena and is part of the National Sports Awards granted each year by the Government of Spain. The same distinction, but from the 2024 edition, was received by Brazilian gymnast Rebeca Andrade after the four medals won at the Paris Games, including gold on floor ahead of American Simone Biles. Andrade, 26 years old, was also unable to attend the event and the trophy was collected by the chargé d’affaires of the Brazilian Embassy in Spain, Luiz Claudio Themudo. Other award winners from the 2023 and 2024 editions were Barcelona footballer Lamine Yamal and Manchester City’s Rodri Hernández, who were also absent. Rodri’s father, Antonio Hernández, first collected the award for the Manchester City player, who has a Premier League match against Fulham this Wednesday and who in 2023 won the English league, the Champions League and the FA Cup, as well as the Nations League with the Spanish national team, before receiving the Ballon d’Or Yes, Barcelona midfielder Aitana Bonmatí, the first player to win three consecutive Ballon d’Ors, and Spanish athlete María Pérez, gold medalist in race walking at the last two World Championships in Budapest and Tokyo and in Paris 2024, received the award from the hands of the kings. Also absent was the Dutch athlete Femke Bol, European Union Trophy 2024 for the three medals she obtained in Paris, with the gold in the 4×400 relay.