Paris 2024 Olympic Games - Canoeing Sprint

Bronze medalist team of Spain celebrate during the medal ceremony of the Men's Kayak Four of the Canoeing Sprint competitions in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. | ALI HAIDER

Jason MoorePalma09/08/2024 09:25
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Spain was easily the best team at the European Championships in Germany and they were rightful winners. However, Spain may be football champions but in other sports they are rather poor despite having the best training conditions in Europe. Spain will return from the Olympics in Paris with only a handful of medals unlike Britain, France and Germany who have secured a golden haul.

At the time of writing (yesterday morning) Spain was 19th in the medal table with just two gold medals. Britain has more gold medals than Spain’s total medal haul. The question has to be asked. Why? Most big villages and towns on Mallorca have fully equipped sports centres, Spain is surrounded by sea and hosts some of the most prestigious sailing events in the world. Not a weekend goes past in Mallorca during the winter without a marathon in some part of the island.

Cycling is a massive sport in Spain and there are regular championships in Mallorca and obviously elsewhere. There are 300 days of sun in Mallorca every year. So what is the problem? Is Spain’s youth too busy concentrating on football and other sports are of little interest? This could sadly be the case. The last time that Spain hit it big was at the Olympics in Barcelona in 1992. Perhaps the necessary investment is not forthcoming from the government to allow athletes to train. Spain should be a major sporting nation. It certainly is at football but sadly away from the beautiful game their results are pretty average. Could do better.