• Profile Paloma del Río, a benchmark in sports journalism and the LGTBI community
  • Farewell Incredible ovation at the World Rhythmic Gymnastics

Paloma del Río retires the week in which there is more talk about women's sport, for better or for worse. It cannot be a coincidence. Rather than retire, he prefers to talk about disassociating himself from RTVE, because stopping does not enter into his plans. The agenda notifies him of several conferences about his great passions: minority and women's sports, and three prizes await him to collect. You will also have more time for your mosaics and your painting by colors, like those little drawings of the children but in paintings of consecrated painters. He no longer has a wall to put them but what matters to him, what relaxes him, is the process.

On Sunday she said goodbye to the microhelmets more excited than she had anticipated, surrounded by a massive ovation and the hand of her inseparable Almudena Cid. She returned the company at the time of the professional goodbye: "Among the many things that athletes have taught me is to know when to retire and how to do it. You can't go from full occupancy to going to the supermarket." The phone has not stopped vibrating, between social networks and calls. Everyone wants to say goodbye to Paloma del Río.

Was he aware that he had this public dimension? I was a journalist who did gymnastics and skating broadcasts, but I think I've already moved on to the other side. All this has caught me off guard. It is not normal, it compensates you a little for that feeling of loss but it is overwhelming. Maybe I've given 1,500 little hearts in networks, I can't answer everyone. Crazy. I don't stop doing interviews and what I want is to relax and say goodbye and continue with my minority sports things! [Laughs] She is the Spanish journalist who has broadcast the most Olympic Games: nine summer and seven winter. Remember that first time? It was in Seoul, we divided for days the sports gymnastics Olga Viza, Esperanza Solano and I. And then also, a little bit of the assault, I had to do trampoline jumps, because suddenly there was no one to cover them. That allowed me to realize that I had to be a little informed about everything. Do not take it prepared as if it were a specialist, but know the minimum to get out of the way.

I already came from the factory focused on minority sports. If I had several options, I never chose football.

What made you fall in love with minority sports? I already came from the factory like that. When there were several sports on TV I never chose to watch football. I always remember with the gang in summer watching the world championship or the European athletics. And when I got to TV the sports were already distributed, of course, and I received from Olga Viza the artistic gymnastics and from María Escario the rhythmic gymnastics. They went on to present and I specialized. It was a bit of fate. Hers has been a generation of pioneering women in sports journalism. Is the glass ceiling still thick? It is, it is. There is still work to be done. They have just appointed the second director of Sports of RTVE, Rosana Romero, but it is still difficult because statistically there are more men doing sports journalism. With which there are more ballots than positions of responsibility are for men.

Of the Rubiales case, what saddens me most is the international image we give. I hope you don't think this is the usual thing here, it would be going back many years.

Lately there is only talk of women's sport, maybe not because of what I would like. How are you living the Rubiales case? With embarrassment and embarrassment of others. I hope that when these women can celebrate and enjoy 100% of their success we will also add to their achievements the social revolution that this has meant. And it is to their credit, they have been the ones who with a very unfortunate action have put on the table something that is happening, archaic behaviors that have lasted too long. You revealed a few years ago that you had also been harassed, that even a boss got his hands on you. Yes, yes, I said it clearly when I presented my memoir, and many classmates came to ask me the name of the bully. I never said it because he had already passed away, but these people existed and exist, and those who are not able to see them need to refresh their mentality. Rubiales is on the cover of all international media. What makes me most sad is that they think that this is our way of life, because it is not true. It is easy to place that stigma on us and it costs a lot to remove it. It's not just the kiss, but the enrocamiento afterwards, look where we have come that they talk about it even in the UN. I wonder what image we are giving. I hope you do not think that this is the usual thing, because it would be going back many years.

Synchronized swimming or rhythmic gymnastics not only have to be broadcast by women, we still have an important bias there.

The World Cup has been broadcast only by women. Does this gender concordance between the narrator and the athlete make sense? It should not be like that, we must give opportunities to women, more in football, which is a very masculinized sport and traditionally consumed by men and made by men. The narratives of synchronized swimming or rhythmic gymnastics do not necessarily have to be done by women, we have a gender bias that must be overcome. Maria Escario was told: "You dedicate yourself to women's sports." And what are those sports? Will he watch the Paris Games, or will it generate too much nostalgia? Oh, no, no. I am a regular sports consumer, sometimes even in excess. If I have the opportunity to go to Paris, I will go, and if I have to see them on television, I will also see them without any problem. Look, before even being on TVE I took the holidays in the week of August when there was world or European athletics. Look at my level of madness. His latest project, the videopodcast Yo no quiero esconderme, puts on the table the LGTBI + reality in sport. Is there still too much homophobia? The problem is football, it's a separate case. I understand that players are afraid to come out. In a stadium in front of 80,000 people who are already shouting at you about everything, if you tell them that you are gay... The "Míchel, faggot" thing should have been eradicated long ago, but the reality is still that. A hot and difficult debate to resolve is that of trans athletes. Do you think you have a solution? It is very difficult because there are very opposing positions. What is clear is that muscle mass and endurance develop in adolescence, and a boy who transitions after 14 retains that condition even if his feeling is female. His body is still male. The sport itself segregates: by weights, by heights, by ages, by categories... You can't put a trans woman in competition with women who haven't made that transition because they're not on an equal footing.

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