María Pérez has become an Olympic medallist with the Eiffel Tower as her witness.
The girl from Orce (Granada),student of the Degree in Early Childhood Education at UCAM, crossed the finish line in second place in the 20km race walk and won a silver medal in Paris 2024. 

After a change of pace at kilometre 13, Maria Pérez marched almost single-handedly to the runner-up spot. China's Jiayu Yang, world record holder in the category, was proclaimed champion after breaking away at kilometre 3 and managing to get more than 40 seconds ahead of the chasing pack.  María also came forward and managed to cut that gap to 17 seconds in an extremely impressive breakaway. 

Finally, the UCAM athlete entered the finish line 25 seconds behind the champion and with a six-second advantage over the Australian Jemima Montag, who pushed hard at the end and won the bronze medal.

The joy on this day was double with the success of Álvaro Martín winning the Olympic bronze medal in the men's race. His coach is the president and coach of the UCAM Athleo Cieza club, José Antonio Carrillo. The coach from Murcia has already guided Martín to a diploma in Tokyo 2020 and to the titles of World Champion in 20km and 35km race walk in 2023. It is the first Olympic medal for José Antonio Carrillo, who has been training Olympic race walkers since Atlanta 1996.

A medal and four diplomas:

UCAM athletes currently have one medal and four diplomas: 

Silver medal: María Pérez (20 km race walk)

Diplomas: María Xiao (table tennis), Hugo González de Oliveira (swimming - 100 backstroke) and Fátima Gálvez and Mar Molné (Olympic shooting). 

In addition, José Antonio Carrillo, coach of UCAM Athleo Cieza, is the coach of Álvaro Martín, bronze medallist in the men's 20km walk.