Rafael Nadal has been awarded the Leyenda Award in the 19th edition 2025. The awards ceremony will be held this Monday, December 1 at the Palace Hotel in Madrid. Pilar Delgado, executive director of the Prisa group, opened the gala with a speech defending the athletes (such as Carolina Marín, María Pérez or Iris Tió, present at the Palace Hotel) as an example and reference for girls.
In this first year without Nadal on the courts, the PRISA Group’s sports newspaper wanted to pay tribute to him for his extraordinary career, which exemplifies the values of determination, commitment and excellence in sport. Accompanied by part of his family, the tennis player will be supported by a long list of companions and will receive different surprises throughout the night. Among them, dozens of letters written with a special ink created with clay, written by tennis school students and by the newspaper’s readers, which carry the motto ‘Dear Rafa’.
In addition to the tennis player, in this edition they have been recognized as Premios AS del Deporte 2025: this year’s MotoGP champion, , who has signed one of the most spectacular comebacks after injury in the sport, not only in his discipline; Spanish women’s cycling, after having achieved four medals in the world championships in Rwanda and three in the European championships; the first woman in the history of athletics to retain a double of world gold medals (Budapest 2023 and Tokyo 2025) in individual events (20 and 35 km walk), history of Spanish sport; and Iris Tió, winner of six medals at the world championships in Singapore, who has become the first Spanish world champion in free solo in artistic swimming.
The men’s water polo team has also been awarded the same award for its second world gold of this generation; the women’s basketball teams, with five categories that have reached the podium in 2025; the cyclist Albert Torres, world champion in Omnium at the track cycling world championships; Álex Palou, first Spaniard to win the Indianapolis 500; and the Roig Arena venue, a project that arose when Valencia Basket won the ACB league in 2017 and that in just three months has changed the social and cultural life of the city.
The Positive Sports Awards have been awarded, for her values and resilience, to the badminton champion, who after suffering three very serious knee injuries has always known how to overcome; and to the Rafa Nadal Foundation, for offering opportunities for personal and social development to children and young people in vulnerable situations and promoting values through sport. The AS Lifetime Achievement Awards of this edition go to the footballers.
Navas hung up his boots at the end of 2024 after a career full of milestones at Sevilla, where he holds the record for the player with the most official matches played and the most titles won. Varane played a relevant role in Real Madrid winning four Champions Leagues and was world champion with France in 2018. Raúl reached 323 goals for the white club (beating a legend like Di Stéfano) and three Champions Leagues almost in a row (from 1998 to 2002). And, who has always known how to take the values of a top-level athlete to the highest level, he has been world champion (2010) and European champion with the national team (2008).
