Paloma del Río

Paloma del Río Cañadas (born 4 April 1960) is a Spanish journalist. She covers rhythmic gymnastics, artistic gymnastics, figure skating, and equestrian competitions for Televisión Española (TVE). She has held various positions in TVE's sports directorate – editor-in-chief, director of sports programs (2009–2013), and currently coordinator of sponsorships and federations.

She has covered several European and World Championships, as well as eight Summer and six Winter Olympic Games. In 2015 she was awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Order of Sports Merit, and that same year, she published her autobiographical book Enredando en la memoria (Tangled in Memory).

She is considered part of the generation of pioneering women in Spanish sports journalism, along with Mari Carmen Izquierdo, Mercedes Milá, María Antonia Martínez, Elena Sánchez Caballero, Olga Viza, Mari Cruz Esteban, and María Escario.

Biography Paloma del Río was born in Madrid in 1960. After completing the Baccalaureate, she took a clinical assistant course and began to work on the night shift of the intensive care unit of the Ruber Clinic in Madrid to pay for her studies.

From 2005 to 2008, she was editor of the program Olímpicos. ADO 2008, and later was the editor of broadcasts of the Beijing Olympics. In September 2011 she and María Escario were awarded the Silver Medal of the Royal Order of Sports Merit by the Consejo Superior de Deportes (CSD).

On 31 August 2015, she was awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Order of Sports Merit, becoming the first journalist to receive it. On 16 November of that year, she presented her book of sports and personal memories, Enredando en la memoria, at CSD headquarters, where she also received her Gold Medal. Since 17 September 2017, she has contributed a sports segment to the program on Radio Nacional de España. She has been a speaker at many conferences, round tables, and presentations on topics such as Women and Sport, Minority Sports, and Olympism.

In July 2018, her candidacy for the presidency of RTVE was announced, although in December, she did not pass the final cut and was left out of the list of the 20 candidates to preside over the public entity. Subsequently, she and other excluded candidates filed an appeal against this decision, still pending resolution by lawyers of the Congress.

Personal life Paloma del Río is openly lesbian. During WorldPride Madrid 2017 she explained in an interview that "I never thought that I should be ashamed to be a lesbian" and indicated that Martina Navratilova had been a role model for her.

Selected list of competitions covered World and European Championships (1986–present) Rhythmic gymnastics: 30 World and 30 European Championships, several Spanish and Championships, the World Cup (2016–2018), and (2017) Artistic gymnastics: more than 55 World Championships and 30 Men's and 30 Women's European Championships Figure skating: 25 World and 25 European Championships since 1994 Equestrian: several World and European Championships Summer Olympic Games (1988–present) 1988: Seoul 1992: Barcelona 1996: Atlanta 2000: Sydney 2004: Athens 2008: Beijing. Also chief editor of the TVE operation and in charge of HD coverage. 2012: London. Also editor and in charge of La 1, Teledeporte, and HD coverage. 2016: Rio 2021: Tokyo Winter Olympic Games (1994–present) 1994: Lillehammer 1998: Nagano 2002: Salt Lake City 2006: Turin 2010: Vancouver. Also editor and in charge of the TVE team. 2014: Sochi. Also content coordinator of the TVE operation. Mediterranean Games (1987–present) 1987: Latakia 2001: Tunis 2005: Almería 2018: Tarragona

Awards and recognitions 2nd Prize of the Arturo Barea Young Adult Novel Award for Nunca tendrás los ojos de la serpiente, granted by the Community of Madrid (1982) Ondas Award, shared with the rest of the TVE operation for coverage of the Seoul Summer Olympics (1988) Silver Medal of the Royal Order of Sports Merit, awarded by the Consejo Superior de Deportes (2011) Madrid Women's Career Award (2014) Press, Radio, and Television Award, granted by the city council of Cornellà de Llobregat (2014) Gold Medal of the Royal Order of Sports Merit, awarded by the Consejo Superior de Deportes (2015) Juan Manuel Gozalo Award, from the Spanish Olympic Committee (2015) Recognition of the AIPS, along with other journalists who have covered more than 10 Olympic Games (2016) Special award at the 19th Sports Gala of Onda Cero Almeria (2016) Special award at the 23rd Sports Gala of the Segovia Sports Press Association (2017) BaezaDiversa Award in the Sports category, awarded by the city council of Baeza (2018)

Publications Nunca tendrás los ojos de la serpiente (1982) Enredando en la memoria (2015), Editorial Libros.com, El papel de las mujeres en el deporte (2019), Editorial Santillana

She has also written the prologue of El origen del deporte femenino en España (2015) by Jorge García García, and the epilogue of Nosotras. Historias del olvidado deporte femenino (2018) by .

Filmography Year Title Character Notes Director 2016 La satisfacción es para siempre Herself (voice) Short promotional documentary from Freixenet Jorge Palomar 2018 Herself (voice) Short documentary Carlos Agulló 2019 Herself Documentary Beatriz Carretero