The last edition of the Autumn Olympiad in Gaztelueta had a very special guest: Yolanda Reyes. Born in Alba de Tormes (Salamanca), she has been four times Spanish 400m champion and 30 times international with the Spanish National Team. She has won two World Championships in the team relay (1999 and 1993) and one World Championship in the individual 400m dash, in Barcelona '95.
Athletics is her life and her great passion; therefore, Yolanda Reyes emphasised her love for sport in general and athletics in particular. Through sport and the values it represents, she has grown and developed as a person. Day by day she passes on what she has learnt and experienced to the young people she has the opportunity to work with.
Currently, she trains and prepares athletes, putting this knowledge at the service of athletes as a National Senior Athletics Coach for the Royal Spanish Athletics Federation, Master in Sports Performance and Pilates instructor.
At the Autumn Olympiad we had the honour of listening to a moving speech addressed to our students which we shared with all those who were unable to attend the school.
Thank you very much Yolanda for your generosity with Gaztelueta!
"First of all, thank you very much to Gaztelueta for the invitation. Athletics has been my sport, my passion, my life. Thanks to athletics I have travelled and met many places all over the world, and I have met some of my best friends and it has also brought me here to your school on your Autumn Olympiad day. As well as teaching us how to run, throw and jump, as a basis for any other sport, is a school of life.
Athletics reveals us as people, it teaches us how far you can go with your effort, perseverance, perseverance, and to work as a team. You are always in company, because you need others to go ahead and go far, and others need you. You learn to win, but more importantly to lose, and to overcome those moments when you have to start all over again. And you live it all, in company, but each one with his or her personal and individual commitment that adds up to the team. That's life! And it prepares us for it. It offers us the opportunity to live great experiences and emotions that you will remember for the rest of your life.
Today I bring you a memory of a moment that remains in my mind, the torch with which I had the opportunity to carry the Olympic fire that finally lit the cauldron of the Olympic Games in Barcelona. I share it with you with emotion.
Today is your moment, enjoy it, enjoy this day, which you will remember for the rest of your life as something exciting.
Thank you for inviting me to share this day. I will remember it this way too. See you in sport"
