President Francina Armengol and Councillor Fina Santiago present the two distinctions of the award, which since 1996 has been awarded 46 times.

The Government is commemorating the 25th anniversary of the award with a book that tells the history of the highest sporting distinction in the Balearic Islands, which has been presented to the distinguished individuals and the jury.

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Cornelius Atticus 2022

The President of the Government of the Balearic Islands, Francina Armengol, accompanied by the Councillor of Social Affairs and Sports, Fina Santiago, and the Director General of Sports, Carles Gonyalons, presented the two Cornelius Atticus 2022 awards, for men and women, to the archery athlete Guadalupe Benavides (posthumously) and the athlete Emilio de la Cámara. Both sportsmen and sportswomen were proposed by the jury of the 28th edition of the awards, which were subsequently ratified by the Consell de Govern.

The Cornelius Atticus is the highest distinction awarded by the Autonomous Community in the world of sport, in recognition of a lifetime’s dedication to the sport. Candidates must have been sportsmen and women, managers, technicians or have had another function directly involved in the promotion of the sport. In addition, they must have dedicated more than 25 years to the development of sports within the Balearic Islands or from the Balearic Islands sport, contributing to the evolution of sports in the autonomous community.

The President of the Government of the Balearic Islands has defended events such as this one, which recognises “people who make this Autonomous Community greater” and reminds us “how necessary the values of sport are” because “volunteering, teamwork, sharing, feeling the colours… are life lessons and are very important for building a people”.

25 years of the highest sporting award
The Cornelius Atticus prize has existed since 1996 and is named after the first known sportsman in the Balearic Islands, a pancracist (a melee fighting discipline) from the 3rd century, whose tombstone was found with a laudatory poem inscribed on it during excavations in the Roman city of Pol-lèntia (Alcúdia, Mallorca) in 1933.

In the institutional act of awarding the distinctions, a diploma, a reproduction of the tombstone and a silver pin with the same reproduction were presented.

Curricula of the Cornelius Atticus 2022
Guadalupe Benavides Calbet (Ibiza, 1952-2016) dedicated more than 25 years to the sporting development of the Balearic Islands as an athlete, manager and technician, and to the promotion of the sport. When she was president of the Archery Federation of the Balearic Islands, the also champion of the Balearic Islands and Ibiza on several occasions, she won the King’s Cup in 1993 with the Balearic national team and achieved a milestone never before achieved by winning the Spanish Championship on three consecutive occasions. Names of national and international sportsmen and women have stood out alongside him, such as the Ibizan Olympian Daniel Morillo Prats, Manolo Vicente, Kristina Yourestone, Magali Foulón, Miriam Alarcón, Carlos Morillo, José Vicente Soler, Lara Samperio, José Raúl Riera, Víctor Juan and Beatriz Cabrero.

Emilio de la Cámara (Jaén, 1944) is a veteran athlete, with more than 50 years dedicated to the sport and 48 years as a football referee, and who has achieved such outstanding awards as being the best European veteran athlete in 2010 and the best Spanish veteran athlete in 2004, 2005 and 2010. He has won nearly 70 international medals, including first place in the M50 World Cross Country Championships in 1997 in Durban (South Africa) and first place in the 10,000m World Championships in 2001 in Brisbane (Australia). He also holds more than ten Spanish records for veterans. Dedicated to athletics since the age of 40, he is one of the most awarded athletes in Spanish athletics. As a promoter of sporting activities, he has been the organiser of the Cross Emilio de la Cámara for 23 editions, from 1998 to 2022. Currently, and since 2018, he is the president of the Club Atletismo Fidipides.

Commemorative book
In the framework of the 25th birthday of the distinction, the Balearic Government, from the Department of Social Affairs and Sports, has published a book, written by the journalist Toni Traveria Vigué, which collects the history of the people distinguished during this quarter of a century and who, above all, have contributed through sport to the community with values and in a selfless, generous, supportive and committed way.

The book was presented and handed over to the winners over the past 25 years, and to members of the jury, by the councillor for Social Affairs and Sports, Fina Santiago, and the director general of Sports, Carles Gonyalons. The ceremony took place prior to the awards ceremony. They all took a family photograph together.

In these 25 years of the award’s history, it is worth highlighting the positive discrimination in relation to women that Cornelius Atticus has introduced since 2017. Since then, each edition has been evenly distributed, with the Govern awarding the distinction to a man and a woman. Until 2016, of the 33 prizes awarded, only three had gone to women and, as of this year, six women have been distinguished, making a total of nine women out of the 46 people distinguished over the last 25 years.