Alexia Putellas and Jon Rahm received 2021 National Athlete of the Year Awards.

Soccer player from Barcelona Alexia Putellas, double golden ball, and a golfer Jon Rahm, recent winners of the Master of Augusta, received this Tuesday awards from Queen Letizia and King Felipe as the best Spanish athletes of 2021 at the National Sports Awards ceremony at the Royal Palace of El Pardo (Madrid).

SS.MM. King and Queen, Felipe VI. and Letizia, and the Minister of Culture and Sports, Miquel Iceta, presided over the act that recognized the people and entities that stood out the most in the competition or in the promotion of sports during the past 2021.

The Barcelona midfielder received her Queen Letizia Award from the monarch, an award that recognizes in 2021 in which she and her team won the historic Champions League title, the first for Spanish women’s football, and, on an individual level, the Ballon d’Or and FIFA The Best which corresponds to the 2021-2022 season, an achievement he repeated this season.

For his part, Jon Rahm received the nod for 2021 in which he received his first main, the US Open, and also climbed to No. 1 in the world rankings, milestones that preceded winning the ‘green jacket’ at Augusta this year. The Spaniard was one of the notable absentees from the event, with his mother, Ángela Rodríguez, receiving the trophy from King Felipe VI.

Not even the climber could attend the ceremony Alberto GineThat, the first Olympic champion in the combination Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 and who received the Rey Juan Carlos Award for the best athlete of discovery, collected by his sister Miriam.

Taekwondo player Adriana Cerezo received Princess Leonor, for the best athlete under 18, while she is a Venezuelan athlete Yulimar Rojas, gold in Tokyo and world record holder in the triple jump, took the Ibero-American Community Trophy, and shooters Fátima Gálvez and Alberto Fernández the Barón de Güell Cup, which distinguishes the best team or selection, for their Olympic gold in the mixed pit. modality in Tokyo 2020.

The jury of the National Sports Awards also recognized organizations and institutions promoting sports and physical activity, such as the Instituto Navarro del Deporte, which awarded the Reina Sofía Award for its projects in favor of fair play and the eradication of any type of violence in sports, such as the office for mediation, training platform on the line and its cooperation with different institutions on issues of equality, LGTBI and migration.

The National Hospital for Paraplegics in Toledo, a reference center for the treatment of people with spinal cord injuries, was awarded the Infanta Sofía Award, dedicated to the promotion of sports for people with disabilities, and the Real Grupo de Cultura Covadonga, the Stadium Cup, for the promotion of sports, especially grassroots.