| Full Name: | Miguel de la Quadra-Salcedo y Gayarre |
| Birth Place: | Madrid, Spain |
| Height: | 180 cm |
| Weight: | 90 kg |
Miguel de la Quadra-Salcedo y Gayarre (30 April 1932 – 20 May 2016) was a Spanish reporter and Olympic athlete.[1] 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.[2]
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.[3]
Later he became a reporter for TVE, where would cover wars such as the Congo (he was sentenced to death for filming the execution of 300 prisoners), Vietnam, Eritrea and Mozambique and events such as the death of Che Guevara (1967) or the Pinochet coup in Chile (1973). Salvador Allende, Pablo Neruda, Indira Gandhi, Haile Selassie, Norodom Sihanouk, Yassir Arafat and the 14th Dalai Lama are among the personalities interviewed by him in his time as a reporter.[4] He subsequently participated in programs such as Los reporteros ("The reporters") (with Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente, César Pérez de Tudela, Manu Leguineche and Jesús González Green) and Aventura 92 ("Adventure 92") (known in its current form as 'Ruta Quetzal'), consisting of the youth exchange students from Spain and Latin America to promote mutual understanding between the two sides of the Atlantic. Another program that he worked for was A la caza del tesoro ("Treasure Hunt"), presented by Isabel Tenaille: Miguel traveled by helicopter somewhere in the world following the instructions of a contestant who was in the studio in Madrid.[5]
New Generations know him as a television character, always traveling the world or as a captain of Ruta Quetzal. The Ruta Quetzal was created suggested by the King of Spain in 1979, with the aim of strengthening the Latin American Community of Nations in the young people between 16 and 17 years old among all Spanish-speaking countries. For 15 years, 7,000 young Europeans and Americans have had the opportunity to discover different cultures as the old Mediterranean civilizations or pre-Columbian cultures.
It is a journey of about one month and a half which is divided in two stages: an American and a Spanish itinerary. Approximately 350 young people from 50 countries study the history, geography and culture of the countries they explore by visiting historical places and participating in conferences that take place during the trip. The members of the expedition live together, share tents and coexist, sometimes in uncomfortable conditions, trying to create an environment of support and respect amongst each other.Since 1979 the route has covered more than 20 countries: Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Venezuela, Bolivia, Mexico, Guatemala, Dominican Republic, Paraguay, Honduras and Costa Rica.
Until 1992 the program was called Adventure 92 to commemorate the centenary of the discovery of America. Since 1993 the program is named Ruta Quetzal. The project is sponsored by the King of Spain, Juan Carlos I and it was declared in 1990 of universal interest by the UNESCO.Besides purely academic activities they are also workshops on new technologies, computer, television, journalism, photography, astronomy, diving, marine science, music and other subjects, as well as talks and discussion sessions on "Development Cooperation".
At later stages Quadra-Salcedo involved in the project his nephew, Telmo Aldaz de la Quadra-Salcedo, who then launched a similarly formatted though less ambitious project, España Rumbo al Sur.