Lionel Valentín Morales González (Caracas, February 14, 1973) has been awarded by the Government of the Canary Islands with the Canary Islands Sports Award 2024 in the category of best career, sports merit or most outstanding work in the field of adapted or inclusive sports for athletes with some type of disability, in recognition of his brilliant season in which, among other merits, he obtained a Paralympic diploma in Paris 2024, thanks to a sixth place in the PTS2 event.
This distinction will be presented by the Ministry of Education, Vocational Training, Physical Activity and Sports of the Government of the Canary Islands on November 15, during a ceremony that will take place at the Infecar facilities, in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, in the context of the ExpoDeca 2024 fair.
Since in 2015 he was proclaimed national triathlon champion and climbed the podium in several ITU World Series events, his record has not stopped growing. In 2016, in Rio de Janeiro, Morales represented Spain for the first time in a Paralympic Games. His seventh place earned him a diploma in the Brazilian event.
Over the years, Lionel Morales' resume has continued to expand progressively with a very extensive collection of successes both nationally and internationally.
In 2023, the Lanzarote athlete certified a great season with a new list of successes, which earned him to finish the year in the third position of the world ranking: champion of Spain of triathlon and duathlon, victory in the World Cup events, in La Coruña and Málaga, as well as several merit positions in different events during the year internationally.
It was the necessary impulse to face a 2024 course full of challenges. He began the season, in mid-March, with a second place in the world series in Devonport (Australia). Just a few weeks later, he confirmed his great form with a victory in the Spanish Duathlon Championship, held in the Asturian town of Avilés. In June, he added a second and a third place in the World Cup, held in Vigo, and in the Swansea World Series (Great Britain). These were the last two events before Paris 2024, in which he finally achieved a Paralympic diploma thanks to his sixth place in the final classification of the PTS-2 modality.
After the Paralympic event, Lionel Morales' 2024 season has continued with new successes: a new victory in the Spanish Triathlon Championship, a fourth place in the European Championship in Vichy (France) and a bronze in the final of the Torremolinos-Andalucía World Championship, on October 18.
