The Mayor of Valencia, María José Catalá, congratulated the Valencian Paralympic Athletes Ricardo Ten (gold in the men’s C1 road time trial (road cycling), silver in the C1-5 mixed team sprint of 750 meters (track cycling), with Alfonso Cabello and Pablo Jaramillo; and bronze in the men’s C1 pursuit of 3,000 meters (track cycling), José Antonio Marí-Alcaraz (bronze in the mixed 4 x 100 meters) and Vicente Gil (swimming), of whom he said that “they are three phenomena that have made us very proud” and added that they are three “examples of the Valencian seal.”
This is how he expressed it. Catalan at the reception this Friday at the City Hall for the Paralympic athletes, in which she was accompanied by the Sports Councilor, Rocío Gil, and the head of the Municipal Sports Foundation, María Ángeles Vidal. The mayor, who gave them a city seal and a painting with each one’s image as a gift, congratulated the three athletes and stressed that it is “very important” to make adapted sport visible.
In this sense, the first mayor stressed that last Wednesday, the municipality launched a campaign “of congratulations, recognition and pride“to the three Valencian Paralympic medalists who participated in the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games. They are Ricardo Ten, Enrique José Alhambra Mollar and José Antonio Marí-Alcaraz.
The campaign consists of the fact that, over the next month, the image of these three medalists will be displayed on the city’s digital mupis and on institutional social networks.
Catalá stressed the importance of making the careers of these athletes visible so that many children have “the right motivation to move forward”. In this sense, the mayor also stressed the importance of highlighting the “power” that is the city of Valencia in these disciplines.
The memory of the public in the stands
For his part, Ricardo Dix He thanked the welcome and affection received through social networks and encouraged “all those who think that perhaps they could not do sport” to do so because “we are the image that it is possible”. In addition, he stressed that it is a “great chance” that in Valencia there are “great facilities” to practice sport.
The swimmer Vicente Gil expressed his satisfaction by reminding people to “applaud” in Paris, since at the last Paralympic Games in Tokyo there was no audience due to covid-19 restrictions.
Finally, the bronze medalist Jose Antonio Mari-Alcaraz He thanked the mayor for the welcome because “this is how our successes and our sporting merits are recognized.”
