Rector meets with a delegation of UAB Olympic athletes
A representation of the UAB's 21 athletes who competed at the Paris Olympic Games, formed by medal-winning paralympic swimmers Núria Marquès and Òscar Salguero, and by swimmer Àfrica Zamorano, met with UAB Rector Javier Lafuente in his office on Friday 13 September. The UAB athletes won six medals in the Paris 2024 Games (four individual medals and two team medals).
They are all students combining their university studies at the UAB with a high-level sports career thanks to the UAB's pioneering programme, Tutoresport, which offers academic support to elite athletes.
UAB Rector Javier Lafuente met with the athletes in his office on Friday 13 September for an informal breakfast meeting. Also attending the meeting on behalf of UAB representatives were Secretary General Esther Zapater; Vice-Rector for Students Anabel Galán; Vice-Rector for Campus Xavier Gabarrell; Dean of Psychology Ander Chamarro; and Head of the Tutoresport programme at the Faculty of Biosciences, Imma Ponte.
For the swimmers of the UAB Olympic delegation, Núria Marquès (who won two silver medals and a bronze medal), Òscar Salguero (bronze medal) and África Zamorano, the Paris Games were the third Olympic Games in which they had participated, after Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo. The athletes were very happy with the results achieved in the Olympic Games, but also talked about the continuous effort and dedication required to achieve their sporting objectives.
Paralympic swimmer and sixth-year medical student, Òscar Salguero, explained that to combine studies and high competition one needs “passion and enthusiasm and work for goals, to be able to achieve, as in my case, a bronze medal in Paris”. Òscar is already finishing his degree and is doing his internship at the Hospital Parc Taulí in Sabadell.
For Paralympic swimmer Núria Marquès, “the Paris games have meant being able to have family and friends there, because they were close to home, and, compared to the Rio and Tokyo games, that was great for me”. Núria is studying her last year of Physiotherapy at the UAB and is already doing work placements in different centres.
For swimmer África Zamorano, who placed 14th in her event: “When we are not training, we are studying. It is difficult to combine it and it takes a lot of effort, but we finally achieved it after so many years”. Africa is in her final year of nursing and is doing her internship at the Vall d'Hebron Hospital.
Six Olympic medals for UAB athletes in Paris:
The UAB is one of the universities that had more students participating in the Paris 2024 Games and who obtained the best results:
-Five players from the women's water polo team, which won the gold medal for the first time in its history: Laura Ester Ramos (Biochemistry alumni), Nonas Pérez Vivas (Psychology), Paula Leitón Arrones (Sociocultural Gender Studies), Elena Ruiz Barril (Nursing) and Isabel Piralkova Coello (International Relations).
-Two players, from the men's handball team, won bronze medals: Ian Tarrafeta Serrano (Political Science and Public Management) and Daniel Fernández Jiménez (Physiotherapy).
-Paralympic swimmer, Núria Marquès, who won three medals (two silver and one bronze).
-Paralympic swimmer, Òscar Salguero, who won a bronze medal.
In addition to these Olympians, there were other sports in Paris 2024 that included athletes who study at the UAB:
In field hockey, Gerard Clapés Castells (ADE), Marc Recasens Llobet (ADE) and Pepe Cunill Clapés (Electronic Engineering in Telecommunications) obtained an Olympic diploma by finishing fourth, while the women's team of the same sport, made up of Clara Pérez Calderón (Medicine) and Marta Segú Rueda (Law), was eliminated in the quarterfinals. In the men's water polo team, Álvaro Granados Ortega (Law), whose team also obtained a diploma by finishing sixth. In swimming, Àfrica Zamorano Sanz (Nursing), Paula Juste Sánchez (Medicine), and Ainhoa Campabadal Amezcua (Veterinary Medicine) participated in their respective competitions. And finally, in modern pentathlon, medical student Laura Heredia Vives also participated, the first woman of the Spanish national team to compete in an Olympic Games in this modality.
Academic support programme for athletes
These UAB Olympians are part of the UAB Tutoresport Programme, an academic support and tutoring programme aimed at UAB athletes. It was the first programme of its kind in Spain and began in the 1996/97 academic year.
The UAB offers them the possibility of combining academic and sporting activity, with the active collaboration of a tutor, a professor from the Faculty or University School.
The UAB offers them the possibility of combining academic and sporting activity, with the active collaboration of a tutor or lecturer from the faculty or university school where they study. The programme validates six optional subject credits of their academic itinerary, encourages them to train at the same campus and actively participate in competitions representing the UAB in Catalan and Spanish championships.