Miguel de la Quadra-Salcedo

Miguel de la Quadra-Salcedo y Gayarre (30 April 1932 – 20 May 2016) was a Spanish reporter and Olympic athlete. He was the director and founder of cultural program Aventura 92 (Adventures 92), nowadays named as Ruta Quetzal BBVA. Although he was born in Madrid, he was always recognized as Basque-Navarre.

Biography

Early beginnings as a successful athlete

Miguel de la Quadra-Salcedo was born in Madrid on 30 April 1932. When he was a child, he went to live with his family in Pamplona, where he studied to be an agricultural expert and stood out as a great athlete. In the mid 50s Miguel and Félix Erausquin, a pitcher of the Basque bar, adapted the Basque technique to the throwing of Olympic javelin. In the manner of the disk or hammer, pitcher turns on itself before throwing. After much training, Miguel de la Quadra-Salcedo presented the "Spanish style" of throwing the javelin. The effectiveness was that high that in 1956 added 20 meters to the world record, which at the time was around 80. However, the record was never approved by the IAAF (International Association of Athletics Federations). It thought that launch was too dangerous for the public because during the rotation the javelin tip was focused to them.

He was nine times champion of Spain in the javelin, hammer and discus, being able to compete in the 1960 Rome Olympics. Between 1961 and 1963 he worked for the Colombian government as ethnobotany in the Amazon region.