Manuel Estiarte Prince of Asturias Award for Sports 2001

The Jury for the Prince of Asturias Award for Sports 2001, convened in Oviedo, comprising Jacques Rogge, Ángel Mario Carreño Rodríguez-Maribona, José María Casanovas, José Ángel Castro Savoie, Miguel Ángel Escamilla, María Escario, Enrique Franco, Julián García Candau, José Antonio Gómez-Angulo, Alfredo Goyeneche Moreno, Daniel Gutiérrez Granda, Miguel Indurain, Luis Infante Bravo, María del Carmen Izquierdo, José Antonio Luque, Pedro Antonio Martín Marín, Herminio Menéndez, Santiago Nolla Zayas, Nemesio Rodríguez López, José Vilaseca i Guasch, Emma Villacieros de García Ogara, chaired by H.R.H.. Pilar de Borbón and with José María García acting as secretary have agreed by a majority decision to bestow the Prince of Asturias Award for Sports 2001 on the Spanish water polo player Manuel Estiarte.

Manuel Estiarte is a remarkable case in Spanish and world sport, having participated in six consecutive Olympic Games, as well as in the European and World Championships. He has been a silver and gold medallist as a member of Spain's water polo team at the 1992 Barcelona and 1996 Atlanta Games. He has been world champion in both Spain and in Italy, where he has played in official competition. He has been top scorer on numerous occasions at both national and international tournaments. Last year he was voted to be a member of the International Olympic Committee by athletes taking part in the Sydney Games, which is an indication of his status as both a sportsman and a person. Estiarte has been exemplary in the world of sport, and was the figurehead of the Spanish water polo team that fulfilled its highest goals in the sport in the nineties.

On such a tragic day for the world as a whole, The Jury for the Prince of Asturias Award for Sports wishes to publicly declare its solidarity with the victims of the terrorist attacks in the United States. The Jury sees sport as a symbol of union and peace for the world, and cannot therefore detach itself from events that contrast so starkly with its philosophy.

Oviedo, 12th September 2001