SPANISH swimmer Teresa Perales has been awarded the nation’s most prestigious sports prize, the Premio Principe de Asturias de los Deportes, at a glamourous award ceremony in the north of Spain on Friday.

The 45-year-old star, who has competed in seven consecutive Paralympics, is one of the world’s most decorated athletes with a whopping 43 Olympic medals -12 gold, 21 silver and 10 bronze. And now she can add a Princess of Asturias gong to her trophy cabinet.

Previous winners of Spain’s top award include Sebastian Coe  Seve Ballesteros, Steffi Graf, Lance Armstrong and Rafael Nadal.

The Spanish soccer team won it in 2010 following their World Cup victory in South Africa.

The Princess of Asturias Awards were established in 1980 to consolidate links between the autonomous community Principality of Asturias and the King and include prizes for people at the top of their game across science, sport and culture.

Other winners of the Princess of Asturias Awards this year include Chef Jose Andres and his NGO World Central Kitchen, who scooped the 2021 Princess of Asturias Award for Concord and feminist Gloria Steinem who was awarded the 2021 Princess of Asturias Award for Communication and Humanities. 

Writer Emmanuel Carrere was given the 2021 Princess of Asturias Award for Literature while Amartya Sen achieved the 2021 Princess of Asturias Award for Social Sciences. 

Finally, the Princess of Asturias Foundation awarded the 2021 Princess of Asturias Award for International Cooperation to the Campaign for Female Education for its 20-year mission to ‘give millions of girls access to education in sub-Saharan Africa.’

The awards were presented on Friday by Spain’s King Felipe V1 and his daughter Princess Leonor at the Campoamor Theater in Oviedo.

Recipients receive a representative sculpture by Spanish artist Joan Miro and €50,000.

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