“Spanish sport is at its best”

The president of the Higher Sports Council (CSD), José Manuel Rodríguez Uribes, has taken stock of 2024, a year marked by the organization’s commitment to sporting excellence, sustainability, innovation, equal opportunities and rights, which that allow Spanish sport to live “its best moment”.

“Spanish sport is at its best thanks to a collective effort, in which families, clubs, federations and the public and private sectors participate, but it is undeniable that everything draws on the individual desire of each athlete and each coach. to improve ourselves and to place not only our flag but also the values ​​that identify us as a country at the top,” stated the president of the Higher Sports Council in his balance sheet for the year 2024.

The CSD closes the year 2024 with a balance marked by the commitment to sporting excellence, sustainability, innovation, equal opportunities and rights. These are the main lines of action of the CSD since 2018, when the Government decided to promote Spanish sport.

This time is marked by “unprecedented” economic investment. In the period 2018-2024, the CSD has had the highest budget in its history – 1,800 million euros, 63% more than in the previous six-year term – and, as Pedro Sánchez announced, in the next six years the resources will increase above 2,000 million euros.

“Not only the economic effort shows that the Government of Spain believes in the transformative power of sport. Also the public policies that we are deploying to consolidate sport as a right of all citizens and as a backbone of society. These have been two of the pillars that have guided our actions in the year that ends today,” stressed the president of the CSD.

With him at the head of the organization, the CSD has promoted regulatory reforms throughout 2024, has reinforced support for high-level sport, has promoted sustainable sports tourism, has contributed to the improvement of sports facilities throughout the territory and has intensified the international projection of Spain, among other initiatives.

One of the latest “milestones” has been the approval by the Council of Ministers of the ‘National Strategy to promote sports against sedentary lifestyle and physical inactivity’, to whose development during the period 2025-2030 the CSD will allocate 87 million euros to consolidate sport as a right of all citizens.

The purpose is that being physically active is the norm in Spain and not extraordinary behavior. To achieve this, the Government will provide the necessary tools and means so that the entire Spanish population has better access to the practice of quality and safe physical and sporting activity.

The determined commitment to improving sports facilities, intensified in 2024 through different lines of action, is already contributing to this objective.

Rodríguez Uribes explained that from the CSD, they have assumed the “firm commitment” to “modernize sports facilities” throughout the territory, aware that sport is “an engine of social cohesion, economic development, territorial structuring and promotion of healthy habits “. “Our commitment includes both High Performance and Sports Technology Centers and those public and private facilities that contribute to the development of grassroots sports,” he added.

Thus, the High Performance Centers of Madrid, León and Sierra Nevada, all of them owned by the CSD, are immersed in the largest modernization process in their history. The amount of the tender for these works is close to 27 million euros.

For its part, the Network of Technology Centers existing in Spain is benefiting from the territorial distribution of 75 million euros within the Energy Plan 2.0. Thanks to this project, the CSD is supporting the renovation of at least 40 centers, in which a reduction in primary energy demand of at least 30 percent will be achieved.

In addition, the CSD has granted aid worth 27.5 million euros to entities that own sports facilities for modernization works that allow them to host international sporting events. Also charged to the European funds of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, aid worth 34.9 million euros has been granted to public entities that own infrastructure to promote sustainable sports tourism.

“We believe that, as a whole, these initiatives benefit high-level athletes and citizens by promoting sports practice in optimal conditions and reinforcing the positive impact of sport on society. Along these lines, in 2025 we will continue transforming sport to to be a fundamental pillar of the development of our country. We must guarantee that Spanish athletes have cutting-edge infrastructure that not only boosts their performance, but also consolidates Spain as an international benchmark in the organization of sports competitions. first level,” added Rodríguez Uribes.

The “suitability” of Spain to host major events has been demonstrated once again this year during the celebration of the America’s Cup for sailing, the Cycling Tour of Spain, the MotoGP and Formula 1 Grand Prix, the FIA ​​MotorSport Games, the Finals of the Davis Cup and the Billie Jean King Cup, the Finals of the triathlon World Series or the pre-Olympic basketball and handball tournaments.

Furthermore, in 2024 some candidacies have come to fruition, the most notable being the World Cup that Spain will organize in 2030 together with Morocco and Portugal. “It will be the best World Cup in history at a sporting and organizational level,” predicted the president of the CSD, who also noted that this event “will contribute to social cohesion, unity, the development of the sports industry and collective pride.” .

Uribes was “especially proud” of the performance of the Spanish athletes at the Paris Games. There, the Olympic delegation and the Paralympic delegation improved their performance compared to Tokyo 2020 based on the number of participants and medalists, which in both cases was significantly higher. All this, in part, thanks to the launch of ‘Team Spain’.