Eight Olympic diplomas for UAB students in the 2016 Olympic Games
30/08/2016
The UAB students who participated in the Olympic Games with the Spanish Olympic team were:
-In water polo: Anna Espar (Business Management and Administration), Laura Ester (Biochemistry), Bea Ortiz (Audiovisual Communication) and Mati Ortiz (Journalism).
-In swimming: Judit Ignacio (Psychology) and Marta González (English and Spanish Studies)
-In field hockey: Mariona Girabent (Physiotherapy), Xavier Lleonart (Journalism), Júlia Pons (Primary Education) and Carola Salvatella (Environmental Science).
The male and female field hockey teams both received an Olympic diploma, classifying fifth and eighth in their competitions. The female water polo team also won an Olympic diploma, classifying fifth.
These students are part of the 112 elite athletes who have studied at the UAB in 2015/16 under the Tutoresport, created in 1996 as a pioneer programme in Spain and the first to take the needs of high competition students into account.
UAB is proud to be one of the universities with the largest number of elite athletes enrolled. The location of the Centre of High Performance (CAR) in Sant Cugat del Vallès makes it easy for students to combine their training with attending classes.
"Values such as discipline and personal effort, which are essential in high-level competitions, helps these students succeed in their careers", explains Xavier Isern, coordinator of the Tutoresport programme.
For water poloist Anna Espar, "in the future my sports career will be over and I need to be prepared. You need to have the skills and training to work in other areas once you leave the sports world. I still don't know what I'll do, but there are many career options in Business Management and Administration, so I'm very happy about that".
In the 1996/97 academic year, the UAB SAF sports centre created the Tutoresport programme to meet the needs of individuals with serious difficulties in making their academic studies compatible with training calendars and official competitions. Each student has a personal tutor assigned to them who helps them plan their academic year in accordance with their sporting events calendar, helps them follow their lessons and works out the special needs of fitting the academic calendar into their schedules, by rearranging exam dates, project deadlines and other class exercises.
London 2012 Summer Olympics
Six athletes from different sports won medals at the last Summer Olympics held in London. Joel González, student of Criminology, won the gold medal in the sub 58 kg category of Taekwondo. BMA student and swimmer Mireia Belmonte was awarded two silver medals in the 200 metre butterfly stroke and in the 800 metre free stroke. Andrea Fuentes, student of Sociology, also won two medals in two categories of synchronised swimming: duet (silver) and team (bronze). The women's water polo team also won the silver medal, with members Laura Ester (Biochemistry), Matilde Ortiz (Journalism), and María del Carmen García (Advertising and Public Relations). A video with some of the athletes and their experiences as university students can be viewed here.
New UAB Olympics website
The UAB will soon launch a new virtual space, the UAB Olympics website, which contains information on UAB students who have participated in the Olympics, from athlete Valentí Massana to swimmer Érika Villaecija and taekwondoist Joel González. It is a small tribute to the fifty athletes who in the past years have combined their studies at the UAB with preparing and taking part in the Olympic Games. Effort, tenacity, hard work are some of the values they all have in common. The tutors participating in the UAB Tutoresport programme help these students adapt their studies to the rhythm of high level competitions.
UAB Olympics