by a non-Asian player. All this means that her rivals are given importance in the chronicles, especially the South Korean Sung Ji Hyun and the Chinese Li Xuerui, and to the Spanish athlete’s victory, which is felt with national pride. Thus, the chronicle’s major headline about the women’s badminton final, which occupies two lines, is “Carolina of Spain” (20/08/2016, p. 8) under a seven-column image of the athlete with open arms and holding a flag.

In the next column next to this image, there are three photographs of the sportswoman celebrating her win according to the newspaper- the Nadal way: “Carolina Marín has always acknowledged her admiration for the tennis player. Yesterday her celebration on the court after winning the gold medal reminded us of the Manacori (20/08 p. 9). As was the case with the Spanish sailing team, the female athletes’ reference is a male athlete. Marca highlights this in its chronicle.

Fernando Rivas is also a reference, once again a profile on him in which his importance in Marín’s victory is highlighted.

“He studied methods to get the best performance out of Carolina, a diamond in the rough he has been polishing for nine years. His methodic way of working, disciplined and analytical, in which every detail counts, is the secret to a Spanish woman’s success among Asians and has placed Spain on the Badminton World map. Innovation has been key. Steering away from tradition. He has become a reference”.

Carolina’s performance in Rio 2016 has the potential to make her a sporting reference for her generation. As the journalist Almudena Rivera indicates in her chronicle, “Thanks to her successes, Spain has discovered that it is much more than a sport played at school or on the beach.” However, the journalist once again highlights male athletes: “Her feat [referring to Marín] is on par with pioneers of the stature of Manolo Santana in tennis, Severiano Ballesteros in golf or Ángel Nieto in motorcycling.

6. Conclusions

Elite athletes become national heroes, a source of pride for their country, role models, and sporting references, mainly when they compete and win a medal. The media plays an essential role in this transformation, strengthening athletes’ status through extensive news coverage of their achievements. This research aims to verify whether this was the case with Spanish women’s sport in the London 2012 and Rio 2016 Olympic Games, in which sportswomen achieved better results (more medals) than their male counterparts.

After the analyses, it was observed that the news value of sporting success meant that Marca covered the women’s performance extensively, focusing on the results obtained in the different events and the sportswomen’s preparation. Nevertheless, the press focuses more on the value of the sportswomen’s nationality and the expectations to succeed than winning a medal. Thus, if Spanish female athletes are likely to win a medal in a competition, it is reported beforehand. Even if they do not win a medal, their performance is covered more extensively than the gold medal won by international athletes. Similarly, Spanish athletes are the center of the visual impact of several covers of the supplements, while international athletes do not star in any of them-