Spain at the
2018 Winter Paralympics
IPC codeESP
NPCSpanish Paralympic Committee
in Pyeongchang
Competitors4 in 2 sports
Flag bearer Astrid Fina
Medals
Ranked 17th
Gold
0
Silver
1
Bronze
1
Total
2
Winter Paralympics appearances (overview)

Spain sent competitors to the 2018 Winter Paralympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea. The team from Spain had 4 people. They included 2 snowboarders and 2 skiers. Blind skier Jon Santacana and guide skier Miguel Galindo Garces competed at the Paralympics before in 2002, 2006, 2010 and the 2014. Astrid Fina Paredes went to the 2014 Winter Paralympics. Snowboarder Víctor González will be going to his first Paralympic Games.

Team

Spain sent 4 people to the 2018 Winter Paralympics. They were snowboards and alpine skiers.[1][2][3] The team went to an event in Madrid on 26 February 2018 in Madrid. After the event, they went to South Korea.[3][4]

The table below contains the list of members of people (called "Team Spain") that will be participating in the 2018 Games.

Team Spain
Name Sport Gender Classification Events ref
Astrid Fina Paredes para-snowboarding female SB-LL2 snowboard cross, snowboard slalom [1][2][5][6][3][7][8][4][9]
Miguel Galindo Garces para-alpine skiing male guide skier slalom, giant slalom, Super G, super combined, downhill [1][2][5][3][4][9]
Víctor González para-snowboarding male SB-LL1 snowboard cross, snowboard slalom [3][7][8][4][9]
Jon Santacana para-alpine skiing male B2 slalom, giant slalom, Super G, super combined, downhill [1][2][5][10][11][3][4][9]

History

Traditionally, the United States, Canada, Germany, Switzerland, New Zealand, Norway and Sweden have been the best countries at the Winter Paralympics. Spain has not sent many people, and has not won many medals. One of the reasons is that there are not many places to ski, and it is very expensive. This discourages people from trying winter sports.[12] Paralympic sports are also treated the same as women's sports in Spain. They are hidden away, and the media gives little coverage to the sporting accomplishments of its elite Paralympic sportspeople.[13] While Olympic people have guaranteed money because of Plan ADO, Paralympic people get much less money from Plan ADOP. The money they get is also much less secure, changing from year to year. This makes it difficult for Spanish Paralympic people to plan in advance their practice and competition calendar. Olympic people get money for the year. Paralympic people only get money for a month. The next month, they may not get any money from Plan ADOP.[13][14] While Spain has a lot of people with disabilities, only 0.5% have a sports license.[13]

There were some issues related to clothing making Joma sponsoring the Winter Paralympic team. The company already sponsored the 2018 Spanish Winter Olympic team.[13] This started during preparations for the 2016 Summer Paralympics. Joma wanted to provide clothing for only some members of the Spanish team going to Rio de Janeiro. They did not want to provide clothes for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the Summer Paralympics. The company cited a lack of commercial visibility for the Paralympic Games as the reason they wanted to do this. While Joma was not providing clothing for all team members for all parts of the Summer Paralympics, the company created advertising saying they were official sponsors of the team. The Spanish Paralympic Committee did not consider them to be sponsors as they were not providing everyone with clothing. They asked Joma to stop what they thought was deceptive advertising. The Spanish Paralympic Committee also considered taking legal action against Joma. The Summer Paralympics became the first Paralympic Games in 20 years where the Spanish Olympic and Paralympic teams did not have the same clothing sponsor.[15][16][17] This situation continued with the 2018 Winter Paralympics.[13][18][19]

Medalists

Medal Name Sport Event Date
 Silver Yon Santacana Maiztegui
Guide: Miguel Galindo Garcés		 Alpine skiing Men's super combined, visually impaired 13 March
 Bronze Astrid Fina Paredes Snowboarding Women's snowboard cross SB-LL2 12 March

Para-alpine skiing

Skiers

Jon Santacana competed at the 2002, 2006, 2010 and the 2014 Winter Paralympics with his guide, Miguel Galindo Garces.[20] He won eight medals between 2002 and 2014 at the Paralympics. Three were gold. Three were silver. Two were bronze.[3]

Schedule and results

The first event on the para-alpine program is the downhill. It starts on 10 March, running from 9:30 AM to 1:30 PM. The second event on the program is Super-G. All skiers will race between 9:30 AM and 1:00 PM on 11 March. The super combined takes place on 13 March. The Super-G part of the event is in the morning. The slalom part is in the afternoon. The slalom event gets underway on 14 March and conclude on 15 March. Women and men both race during the same sessions in the morning. The afternoon sessions start with the women doing their second run. Then the men go. The last para-alpine skiing race of the 2018 Games is the giant slalom. It takes place on 17 - 18 March. Men and women both race at the same time in the morning sessions. Women race first in the afternoon sessions, with the men racing a half hour after they end.[21]

Para-snowboarding

Snowboarders

Spain sent two snowboarders to the Paralympic Games in South Korea. They were Astrid Fina Paredes and Víctor González. They are members of Federación Española de Deportes de Personas con Discapacidad Física, a sport organization for people with physical disabilities.[3]

Astrid Fina Paredes

Astrid Fina Paredes went to the IPC World Cup 2017 in La Molina, Spain. She won two silver medals. The World Cup was part of her training for the 2018 Winter Paralympics. In February 2017, she went to the IPC Para-Snowboarding World Championships in Big White, Canada. She finished fourth in the snowboard slalom race and fifth in the snowboard cross race.[22][23][24] In 2017, she wanted to go to the 2018 Paralympic Games and win a medal. Her fear was she would get hurt. This would make it difficult to race and get a medal.[22][25] She leaves for South Korea on 2 March 2018, with her first race on 12 March and her second one 15 March.[7]

Astrid Fina Paredes was at the 2014 Winter Paralympics, with the 2018 Games being her second Games. At Sochi 2014, she finished sixth in snowboard cross.[26][7] From Barcelona, Fina Paredes has a physical disability because of a traffic accident in 2009.[5][26][25] In 2013, her leg was amputated. She started para-snowboarding that year. It was one year from when she start that she went to Sochi.[25] Participating in snowboarding costs a lot of money. To continue to practice and compete in the southern hemisphere during 2016, she needed to rent out her apartment in Spain. Team Spain had no money to help her.[13]

Víctor González

Víctor González was a snowboarder. He had an accident. Because of the accident, he got a disability in his legs. After the accident, he switched to para-snowboarding.[25]

Schedule and results

The snowboard cross event starts on 12 March, running from 10:30 AM to 5:00 PM for all classes for both men and women.[27] The slalom race is scheduled to take place on 16 March, going from 10:30 AM - 4:55 PM for men and women in all classes.[28]

Medalists

The Government of Spain said there was 135,000 € total to give to Spanish sportspeople who won medals at the 2018 Games. If a person won a gold medal, they got up to 30,000 €. If a person won a silver medal, they got up to 15,000 €. A person with a bronze medal got up to 9,000 €.[29][14] These totals have been criticized. At the 2016 Summer Olympics and Paralympics, the government allocated 1,861,000 € for Olympic medalists but only 684,000 € to people who won medals at the Paralympics. The individual totals are still better than the past. At the 2012 Summer Paralympics, Olympic gold won a person 94,000 € but a gold medal at the Paralympics only won a person 10,000 €.[13][14]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Liberty renueva su acuerdo con el Comité Paralímpico Español de cara a los Juegos de 'Tokio 2020'" (in Spanish).
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Nieve en verano | SeSalen". #SeSalen (in European Spanish). 2017-07-26. Retrieved 2018-02-13.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Jon Santacana, Miguel Galindo, Astrid Fina y Víctor González, representarán a España en los Juegos Paralímpicos de Pyeongchang". Servimedia (in Spanish). 2018-02-15. Retrieved 2018-02-16.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 elEconomista.es. "Jon santacana, miguel galindo, astrid fina y víctor gonzález, representarán a españa en los juegos paralímpicos de pyeongchang - EcoDiario.es" (in Spanish). Retrieved 2018-02-17.
  5. 1 2 3 4 "Participants". Comité Paralímpico Español (in Spanish).
  6. ↑ "World Para Snowboarding Classification Master List". International Paralympic Committee.
  7. 1 2 3 4 "Àstrid Fina disputarà els seus segons Jocs Paralímpics d'Hivern a PyeongChang 2018 | Federació Catalana d'Esports d'Hivern". Federació Catalana d'Esports d'Hivern (in Catalan). Retrieved 2018-02-17.
  8. 1 2 "Torna a Baqueira el campus per a la promoció dels esquiadors i surfistes discapacitats o amb mobilitat reduïda". diaridelaneu (in Catalan). Retrieved 2018-02-17.
  9. 1 2 3 4 "Juegos Paralímpicos de Invierno 2018: España irá a los Juegos Paralímpicos de Pyeongchang con cuatro deportistas - Marca.com". Marca.com (in Spanish). Retrieved 19 February 2018.
  10. ↑ "Alpine Skiing results". International Paralympic Committee.
  11. ↑ "Alpine Skiing Master List". International Paralympic Committee.
  12. ↑ "PyeongChang 2018". www.quimbonaventura.com. Retrieved 2018-02-17.
  13. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "El greuge paralímpic: fer el mateix i cobrar menys" (in European Spanish). Retrieved 2018-02-17.
  14. 1 2 3 elEconomista.es. "Los deportistas olímpicos cobran el doble que los paralímpicos en españa - EcoDiario.es" (in Spanish). Retrieved 2018-02-17.
  15. ↑ "Los paralímpicos españoles, equipados para Río - Marca.com". Marca (in Spanish). Retrieved 19 February 2018.
  16. ↑ "Los olímpicos y paralímpicos españoles no vestirán igual porque Joma quería cobrar a los paralímpicos". Meneame (in Spanish). Retrieved 19 February 2018.
  17. ↑ "Desacuerdos entre el CPE y Joma alejan a la marca de los JJPP". Avance Deportivo (in European Spanish). Retrieved 19 February 2018.
  18. ↑ "Joma desfila en los Juegos Olímpicos de Invierno en PyeongChang". abc (in European Spanish). Retrieved 19 February 2018.
  19. ↑ "PyeongChang 2018: Tonos grises y rojos para el desfile del equipo español". abc (in European Spanish). Retrieved 19 February 2018.
  20. ↑ "Results". International Paralympic Committee.
  21. ↑ "Programm". Austrian Paralympic Committee (in German). 12 February 2018. Retrieved 17 February 2018.
  22. 1 2 Ribas, Miquel (2017-02-17). "Dos platas para Astrid Fina en la Copa del Mundo IPC 2017 de La Molina". Turiski (in European Spanish). Retrieved 2018-02-16.
  23. ↑ "La rider catalana Astrid Fina vuelve a repetir plata en la Copa del Mundo IPC 2017 de Para-Snowboard de La Molina". www.lamolina.cat (in Spanish). Retrieved 2018-02-16.
  24. ↑ Periódico, El (2017-02-22). "El canvi de vida radical d'Astrid Fina". elperiodico (in Spanish). Retrieved 2018-02-17.
  25. 1 2 3 4 "Astrid Fina: "Quiero una medalla en los Juegos Paralímpicos de Pyeongchang" - Marca.com". Marca.com (in Spanish). Retrieved 2018-02-16.
  26. 1 2 "Preparados para los Juegos Paralímpicos de Invierno". ONCE (in Spanish).
  27. ↑ "Programm". Austrian Paralympic Committee (in German). 2 February 2018. Retrieved 17 February 2018.
  28. ↑ "Programm". Austrian Paralympic Committee (in German). 12 February 2018. Retrieved 17 February 2018.
  29. ↑ "Scholarships for the 2018 Games" (PDF). Spanish Paralympic Committee (in Spanish).
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