There are women who, although they do not run regularly, do not miss out on running. And many do so trusting that this event, in addition to helping to promote women’s sports, donates part of the profits to breast cancer research. The motivation of some to complete those six kilometers is that they themselves have suffered a tumor, or their mothers, sisters or friends have suffered from it. Their expressions are transformed into a video recorded on Instagram by the , and widely disseminated on networks, during last week’s race in Madrid, when they are told that they calculated that the percentage donated is only 1% of what the organizing company, Sport Life Ibérica, earns in a year. The clip captures the disappointment of the runners upon learning that the activity is for profit, when they believed that everything was given away. “You participate in this precisely so that the money goes to these causes,” one of them complains.
The company that organizes the race has explained to EL PAÍS that last year 110,000 women participated throughout the circuit and that the equivalent of 20% of its net income from registrations – 264,967 euros – was allocated to “solidarity actions.” This total amount is published on its website, although it is not justified or explained: it is not accompanied by the percentage it represents of each registration, nor the number of runners in 2025.
Once this article was published, the CEO of the company, María Wandosell Alcina, got in touch to say: “We have been on the side of women, their health, their causes and their rights for 22 years. More than two million euros in accumulated contributions. That commitment is not activated when there is controversy nor is it deactivated when there is none.” He ratified the data shared by the Communication team to questions asked by this newspaper and highlighted: “1% is a figure that mixes the billing of the entire company – 56 events, magazines, digital media – with the specific data of the Race. These are magnitudes that are not comparable.”
The company had previously detailed by email: “It is a women’s sporting event with social commitment. It has never been presented as a charity race or as an NGO. Its main objective from the beginning has been to promote.” Furthermore, he had developed that “revenue from registrations, merchandising or sponsorship, as well as the organization costs, are data that are part of the internal economic management of the circuit and, in some cases, commercial agreements with third parties.” That is why they do not publish the breakdown.
In the , while they jog with their pink t-shirts soaked because it was a rainy day last May 10 in the capital, the runners think that they would expect “100%”, “as much as possible”, “at least half” of their registration to be donated. The cheapest bib costs 13.95 euros. The races have been held for 22 years and take place in nine cities between March and September.
This is, in the words of the organization, “the largest women’s sporting event in Europe” and also “an international benchmark of solidarity support for entities of all kinds.” The company Sport Life Ibérica is also behind other activities, such as the Seville marathon and the Santa Claus Race in Madrid. In addition, it offers services marketing and is the editor of around twenty publications on sports, cars and motorcycles.
The lists of organizations to which it made donations in 2025 and 2024 and the breakdown of the amounts given to each are published on the Women’s Race website. Last year, the 264,967 euros were distributed among at least 36. Of them, 23 have received all or part of the aid in the form of “transfer and assembly of stands“in the fair or the area of the event’s finish line, that is, not in real money income. The largest beneficiary according to the data was the Spanish Association Against Cancer, which received 96,197 euros and another 23,400 euros in stands for their local offices. In addition to other focused NGOs, the list includes associations for the defense of women’s rights, against gender violence, for refugees and humanitarian aid, for support for those affected by the Valencia disaster, and for the promotion of sports. Different entities on the list have confirmed to this newspaper that they received the published amount.
Sport Life Ibérica earned only 3,045 euros in 2024, as published on its transparency website. It obtained 10,656,342 euros in income and spent 10,653,297 euros, but this figure corresponds to the total of the communication and events company, not just the Women’s Careers section. Its last public balance sheet is from that year, because it is usually presented after the summer. It is the one that Teta y Teta has used to calculate the percentage of with respect to its activity.
“The problem is that, no matter how bad it may seem to us, it is legal,” claims Marina García Canedo, spokesperson for Teta y Teta, who interviewed the women while they were running in Madrid. “Neither in Spain nor in Europe is there a specific standard for solidarity advertising or marketing social. “This type of initiative is governed by the same rules as advertisements for sweets,” she explains. The activist movement Femen and breast cancer patients broke into the race to demonstrate against what they consider: symbolic gestures without real charge that aim to win over the women’s collective. They seek to mobilize the participants to go to the marches and donate directly to those affected by the disease.
“The idea that this is better than nothing deactivates the social struggle,” laments García Canedo, publicist and specialist in political communication. “We have very little time to do anything other than work, we want to help and the role of brands makes up for that difficulty. Since you have to buy a package of pads, buy mine and in the process help,” describes the spokesperson. However, García Canedo claims: “Who are we asking to take care of us? A sanitary pad brand or the Ministry of Health? If there is no money to investigate, we must ask the Government.”
Rubén Sánchez, spokesperson for the , explains that, in this case, “the trick” is that the organizing company does not advertise the activity as a charity or benefit race, and clarifies: “The brand is already very identified with the solidarity purpose, they don’t need it.” The law that regulates misleading advertising applies not only to false information, but also to information that “even if truthful, due to its content or presentation, may mislead recipients, being susceptible to altering their economic behavior.” For Sánchez, the promotion is legally correct, although ethically debatable: “The ethical thing would be to say, for example, that five euros from each participant, or 30%, goes to the Spanish Association Against Cancer.”
