Eva Ribalta's invisible race
When she is proposed an interview to appear in this space, Eva Ribalta Ferrer questions whether she is the right person. She prefers to be one of those who sit at the back in a conference to listen and not raise their hand to speak. But at 52, she has understood that she must combat this discretion to help foster the visibility she has championed since 2019 through the Associació Esport Femení Lleida.
This woman from Lleida, a world and Spanish champion on several occasions and with several more titles, has an extensive record in long-distance running, duathlon, and triathlon in master categories. She has been on the podium in the marathon world championships in Vichy, has stood on the top step at the Ironman of Portugal-Cascais, and has completed the mythical Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii, where she is willing to return between 2027 and 2028. But she does not define herself by her results. "I am part of a great collective – she states –. There are many women who try to balance work, family, and social responsibilities with our dreams."
Perhaps that is why she insists on being a popular athlete. She works in an architecture firm managing finances, is a mother, and gets up at dawn to train since her children were small. Hers is not the story of an elite athlete, but that of many women who try to find a balance between what they have to do and what makes them feel alive. Her goal is to grow old with a sustainable sporting practice that allows her to always be ready to put on her running shoes and go for a run, share it with her loved ones, study art history, and "live very peacefully".
Her greatest achievement has not been a medal. It came at the age of 35, when her brother signed her up for a race after a long period of inactivity initially motivated by an injury. "I am from the generation that, with studies and childcare, we put absolutely everything on hold." That's why she needed the push of that clandestine registration. Then came the training, the championships, and the podiums. When asked what weighs more, the results or having proven that sport has no age, she does not hesitate. She recalls the impact that the veterans she saw competing in a marathon World Championship had on her. "I looked at them and thought: I want to be that." And she has never felt discriminated against by gender or age, but rather the opposite: "There is admiration among colleagues".
Together with other colleagues, she led the creation of the Lleida Women's Sports Association to focus on often unknown sports and athletes. This is a region very fertile in sports talent starring women, "but we are hidden." That is why we need to create role models and increase the data that estimates that in Catalonia only 35% of federative licenses correspond to women. But Eva Ribalta prefers to focus on progress. "First we have to make the segment of women who practice physical activity, which has boomed in recent years, grow; and then parity in competition will arrive."
Her role models are not great sports stars. They are older women whom she has seen training for years with their children on their backs. "The best role models are those you have close by." Perhaps because the most arduous race is not to arrive first. It is not to give up on oneself while achieving everything.