Princess of Asturias Award Goes to Lindsey Vonn

By Published On: May 24th, 2019Comments Off on Princess of Asturias Award Goes to Lindsey Vonn

Former Spanish World Cup skier María José Rienda, RFEDI-spainsnow president May Peus, and the Spanish Olympic sailing gold medalist in Barcelona 92 and Atlanta 96, Theresa Zabell, proposed American skier Lindsey Vonn to qualify for the 2019 Princess of Asturias Award, highlighting the importance of winter sports promotion in Spain.

Vonn, who retired this spring from professional alpine skiing competition after 19 seasons and 82 victories in the FIS World Cup, has eight medals in World Championships (two gold, three silver and three bronze) and three in the Olympic Games (one gold and two bronze).

María José Rienda ended her world cup career with 11 podiums and 6 victories and now serves as President of the Spanish High Council of Sports (Consejo Superior de Deportes) and was pleased after finding out the award was going to Vonn.

“I am proud that she has been granted such a recognized and prestigious award from our country,” she said. “She has been a reference sportswoman, very competitive and versatile in many disciplines of alpine skiing. A media and sport icon, which with perseverance and work has remained for many years in the top positions.”

Zabell also explained that “10 years ago this award was not granted to a woman but Vonn deserves it because she has all the characteristics of a great person, from maximum competitiveness to total altruism.”

The president of the RFEDI, Peus, has commented on this award stating that from the Federation “We appreciate very positively that this award has been granted to a woman. Lindsey Vonn brings together all of the sporting values of this award. From the Federation we consider that the election of Vonn, a mythical skier, reinforces the winter sports in Spain. In addition, it will help to promote the women’s sport that we carry out from the federation with the ‘Woman and Snow’ program. No doubt, a motivation for our skiers to achieve high performance.”

Release Courtesy of Rfedi

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