The Goyeneche Auditorium at the Spanish NOC headquarters in Madrid played host to the NOC’s 14th gala evening, which saw the NOC present its annual awards to athletes, sports federations, institutions and media organisations. The ceremony, which was attended by NOC President Alejandro Blanco, was broadcast live by RTVE, the Spanish public broadcaster. A video message from the IOC President was shown at the start of the ceremony.

After the introduction, Alejandro Blanco took the stage, accompanied by the Secretary General, Victoria Cabezas, to deliver the Olympic Orders to the Vice President of the International Olympic Committee, Juan Antonio Samaranch, to the president of the Royal Spanish Gymnastics Federation, Jesús Carballo and the Olympic athletes Mª José Rienda, Javier Gómez, Joel González, Maialen Chourraut, Teresa Perales, Érika Villaécija and Iván Raña.

Blanco and Cabezas delivered also the “Juan Manuel Gozalo” awards to sport journalists Natalia Arriaga and Gerardo Riquelme, of the EFE Agency and the newspaper Marca, respectively.

Next, the COE treasurer, Víctor Sánchez accompanied Alejandro Blanco for the delivery of the Olympic Plaques of Sports Merit to the following federations: Spanish Boxing Federation, Royal Spanish Ice Sports Federation, Spanish Weightlifting Federation, Royal Horse Riding Federation Spanish, Royal Spanish Aeronautical Federation, Spanish Chess Federation, Spanish Federation of Water Skiing and Wakeboard and Royal Spanish Federation of Motonautics.