In celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Barcelona ’92 Olympic Games, the 36th Copa del Rey MAPFRE and the Spanish sailing community, will pay tribute to the Spanish sailors who participated, and achieved one of the most important achievements in Spanish sport; five medals in total (four golds and one silver). The event will take place in Palma on Thursday 3rd August and will be chaired by Alejandro Blanco, President of the COE (Spanish Olympic Committee), Julia Casanueva, President of the RFEV, and Javier Sanz, President of the RCNP.
Sailing is the sport to have achieved the greatest number of medals (19) and golds (13) in Spanish Olympic sporting history. Four gold medals and a silver in the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, earned the country almost a quarter of the medal tally (22 in total, 13 golds), the country’s best participation in the Olympics to date.
In the words of the Real Club Nautico de Palma’s President, Javier Sanz,
“Every year the Copa del Rey MAPFRE gathers the world of Spanish sailing in Palma, and many Olympic sailors from the past, present and future, and it is the perfect setting to pay tribute to the Spanish Olympic team from Barcelona ’92, 25 years after the fabulous scenes that will be forever in our hearts and memories.”
“For the Real Club Náutico de Palma and the 36th Copa del Rey MAPFRE it is a great honour and pride to be able to celebrate this tribute. It is particularly special that as well as flying the Spanish flag on the water, one of the team members was HM King Felipe VI, formerly the Prince of Asturias,” added Sanz.
The tribute, organized by the 36th Copa del Rey MAPFRE with the collaboration of the Royal Spanish Sailing Federation and Spanish Sailing Committee, will be held on Thursday 3rd August at 10.30h on the terrace of the Real Club Nautico de Palma, just before the regatta’s participants set off for the first racing of the day.
The ceremony will be chaired by Alejandro Blanco, President of the Spanish Olympic Committee; Julia Casanueva, President of the Royal Spanish Sailing Federation, and Javier Sanz, President of the Real Club Náutico de Palma.
The event has invited the full team of Spanish sailors who participated in Barcelona’92 with the exception of Mireia Casas (women’s windsurfing), who sadly passed away in 2002, aged 35.
A number of the 16 Olympic athletes invited to the event, will also be taking part in the 36th Copa del Rey MAPFRE including José María Van der Ploeg, gold medal in Finn in Barcelona’92, and boat owner and skipper of “VSA Comunicación” (Herbalife J80 class) in Palma; Domingo Manrique, gold medal in Flying Dutchman (’92) and crew member of “Maserati” (BMW ORC 1) in Palma; Natalia Vía-Dufresne silver medal in Europe class in the Games, and skipper of “Geseme Marmarela” (Herbalife J80) in Palma; Fernando León, diploma in Soling Open in 1992 and skipper of “Maserati” (BMW ORC 1) in this edition of the regatta, and HM King Felipe de Borbón, Olympic diploma in Soling alongside Fernando León (and Alfredo Vázquez) and regular Skipper of the Spanish Navy’s “Aifos” (BMW ORC 1) in the Copa del Rey MAPFRE.
The members of the Spanish Sailing Team in the Barcelona’92 Olympic Games were:
Luis Doreste and Domingo Manrique (Flying Dutchman), gold; Jordi Calafat and Francisco Sánchez Luna (470 M), gold; José María Van der Ploeg (Finn), gold; Theresa Zabell and Patricia Guerra (470 W), gold; Natalia Vía-Dufresne (Europe), silver; Fernando León, HRH. Felipe de Borbón and Alfredo Vázquez (Soling Open), diploma; Asier Fernández (Lechner M), diploma; Fernando Rita and Jaime Piris (Star); Carlos Santacreu and José Luis Ballester (Tornado), and Mireia Casas (Lechner W).
The 36th Copa del Rey MAPFRE is organised by the Real Club Náutico de Palma and the Real Federación Española de Vela (lit. Spanish Sailing Federation), and is sponsored by MAPFRE with the institutional collaboration of the Govern de les Illes Balears (Balearic Islands Regional Government), the Ayuntamiento de Palma (Palma Town Hall), the Autoritat Portuaria de Balears (Balearic Islands Port Authority) and the Federación Balear de Vela (Balearic Islands Sailing Federation).
