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Women's sport is making its way in Spain in a way that is as unstoppable as it is difficult.

Avoiding prejudices and barriers.

With small advances, with so much to do.

Alexia Putellas or Ana Peleteiro

are already on the front pages, the medals are still more their thing than theirs and there is even a professional soccer league.

Small lights in the background, although the figures are still devastating.

On the pitch and in offices.

Until Barcelona'92 no woman had stood on an Olympic podium and in the last three Games they have been the basis of success, 27 out of 25 podiums.

And yet, of the 66 sports federations in Spain, only two are chaired by a woman.

Asunción Loriente

, in rowing, is the only Olympian (the other is

Isabel García

in Salvamento y Socorrismo) and just over a month ago she had to overcome an "unpleasant" and controversial motion of censure.

In her speech there is no trace of victimhood - "I'm not a crybaby, we also have work to do" -, but she does claim the deserved focus.

«We have grown in visibility, in successes, in references and even in practitioners: there are more girls doing sports than 30 or 40 years ago, but we still have a long way to go.

I do not see everything so black, I am not so pessimistic, "he reveals.

Asunción Loriente, president of the Spanish Rowing Federation. Spanish Rowing Federation

«If women's sport does not sell, it does not have a presence in the media, we have to reflect and see why.

It's not just worth complaining.

We have to do something attractive, even if we are aware that there are things that we are not going to achieve », she reflects on the eternal and unfair debate on profitability.

That war that is won in small battles: a few days ago, the US Soccer Federation and the country's women's team closed their dispute over salary discrimination with an agreement by which the players will receive 24 million dollars as compensation and will have the same salary than the men's team.

Harder are the reflections of

Laura Múgica

, co-founder of the Women's Sport Institute, a company that emerged more than a year ago with the aim of "promoting sports practiced by women."

“There is no significant progress.

Everyone talks, but really relevant things are not happening », she denounces.

And she bases her speech on figures.

A detailed study carried out together with the Francisco de Vitoria University concludes that only 23.5% of the federated athletes in Spain are women.

“There is no reason why that movement towards equality should not take place.

But it doesn't happen.

Another of the myths that the report dismantles is that there is an appearance that things are going well, but it is not true.

There is an elite that, based on effort, is more visible, but the base and the sports structure still have a brutal way to go.

The feeling is that we are comfortable in inaction », she protests.

Maternity

"There's a lot of work to do," agrees Laura.

“Visibility is essential, the mirror effect.

Little by little it will attract people, but you have to get more things.

In Spain, in the last 10 years, there has been practically no growth in female athletes », she admits.

In the elite the differences are significantly smaller (37.9% women), although then there are the offices.

Precisely this Monday, before speaking to this newspaper, Asunción Loriente had had a meeting at the Spanish Olympic Committee for Women's Week... surrounded by men (only 13 of the 117 members of the COE General Assembly are women) .

"Do you feel lonely.

You feel that you have to prove more than them, that they are supposed to be great managers.

You are permanently justifying yourself », she admits.

«A little you analyze it, there is a lot of machismo.

I have experienced it in this last stage, with the motion of censure.

Analyzing things, there's a lot of that, in old ways.

I just want them to give me the same opportunities as them », she claims.

Among the tasks to be resolved, that of maternity and conciliation, where there were also small steps: the new collective agreement, with FIFA guidelines, will reinforce the safety of soccer players, with paid maternity leave and additional protections for the players pregnant.

And the abandonment of sports practice, more accentuated in them.

«It is a basic problem, we must change the cultural model.

There is an abandonment in adolescence, because we do not have sport as integrated into our lives.

And in girls, in addition, it is earlier, "warns Loriente.

“School sports is a disaster.

Between the ages of 12 and 17, girls stop exercising.

It is necessary to delve into these reasons, with serious plans, as in other countries.

Not only is an issue of equality at stake, but also of health, "concludes Múgica,

The figures that deny equality

27 medals.

In the last three Games, the Spanish medals have been more their thing, although in Tokyo the trend was broken.

From London, 27 female to 25 male, quite a symptom considering that until 1992 no Spanish woman stood on an Olympic podium.

2 presidents.

Of 66 Spanish sports federations, only two are chaired by women.

The one for Rowing, by Asunción Loriente, and the one for Rescue and First Aid, by Isabel García.

Since 2019, the CSD requires "to have 40% female representation on the Board of Directors."

76.5% men.

Only 23.5% of the federated athletes in Spain are women.

In France, for example, that figure amounts to 32% of licenses.

12.6% of men who regularly practice some sport are federated, compared to only 3.7% of women.

37.9% women.

In high-level sport in Spain.

However, only 3.7% of Spanish women practice some federated sport.

Men, 12.6%.

The sports with the most federated women are gymnastics (90%), volleyball (75.3%), horse riding (69.2%) and skating (61.9%).

6 trainers.

After the signing of María Pry by Madrid CFF in January, there are now six coaches in the Iberdrola football league, a record.

However, there are only two among the 16 Endesa Basketball League teams: Madelen Urieta (Araski) and Azu Muguruza (IDK Euskotren).

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