Spain
2020–21
A Games postponed by a year, a championship held across four stadiums at once, five medals indoors, three national records in five weeks — and one Olympic bronze that was itself a record, with four fourth places behind it.
Spain's Tokyo cycle ran from the postponement of 24 March 2020 to a single Olympic athletics medal on 1 August 2021: Ana Peleteiro's triple jump bronze with a Spanish record of 14.87 m, three centimetres clear of fourth. Four other Spaniards finished fourth in Tokyo. Between the two, the team won five medals at the European Indoor Championships in Toruń — Óscar Husillos's 400 m gold among them — and Mohamed Katir broke the national 5000 m, 1500 m and 3000 m records in five weeks of summer.
This is the stretched cycle in full: the empty 2020, Toruń, Katir's July, the wall of fourth places in Tokyo — and the two Joma pieces of the cycle in this archive, one from the Olympic delegation and one from the federation.
Part of our Season Series — one year at a time. The full national story is in The History of Athletics in Spain. Jump to the 2020–21 kit or browse the collection.
- The postponement
- Tokyo moved to 2021 on 24 March 2020; the Paris Europeans cancelled in April; the Dublin cross called off
- 2020
- The 100th Spanish Championships, 12–13 September, across four Madrid venues at once
- Toruń 2021
- 5 medals (1-2-2): Husillos gold 400 m (46.22), Peleteiro and Ureña silver, Gómez and Mechaal bronze
- Katir's July
- 5000 m 12:50.79 (10 June), 1500 m 3:28.76 (9 July), 3000 m 7:27.64 (13 July) — banned since 2024, to 6 Feb 2028
- Tokyo
- One medal from 55 athletes: Peleteiro bronze, triple jump, 1 August 2021
- The record
- 14.87 m in the fifth round — two Spanish records in one final; still the record in 2026
- The margin
- 3 cm over Ricketts's 14.84 — and four Spaniards fourth: Cáceres, Álvaro Martín, María Pérez, Tur
- The kit
- Joma twice: RFEA competition kit since 2009 and the COE delegation kit presented on 1 June 2021 — 2 pieces in the archive
A Cycle Stretched by a Year
The Tokyo Olympics were postponed on 24 March 2020, the first postponement in the history of the Games, and Spanish athletics lost its whole summer with them: the European Championships in Paris were cancelled outright in April, the World Indoors in Nanjing slipped to another year, and even the European cross country in Dublin in December was called off. What remained was the hundredth Spanish Championships, held on 12–13 September 2020 across four venues in the Madrid region at once — Vallehermoso, Moratalaz, Getafe and Alcobendas — in the federation's centenary year. Mariano García kept the 800 m title in 1:47.55, Marta Pérez won both the 1500 m and the 5000 m, and Bernat Erta took the 400 m.
The kit for a Games that did not happen was already made. The Spanish Olympic Committee's Joma collection had been designed for July 2020; it was finally presented at the COE's headquarters in Madrid on 1 June 2021, modelled by swimmers and canoeists, with a white Mao-collar parade jacket, cotton-piqué polos and podium tracksuits in white with red-and-yellow trim, cut from recycled polyester. The polo on this page is one of those garments, and its label still says Tokyo 2020.
Five in Toruń
The delayed cycle's first championship was indoors. At the European Indoor Championships in Toruń, 4–7 March 2021, Spain won five medals, tenth in the table. Óscar Husillos, three years after the stepped line of Birmingham, won the 400 m in 46.22 on 6 March; Ana Peleteiro took silver in the triple jump with 14.52 m, one centimetre behind Patrícia Mamona and ahead of Neele Eckhardt on countback; Jorge Ureña was second in the heptathlon with 6158 points behind Kevin Mayer; Jesús Gómez and Adel Mechaal took bronze in the 1500 m and the 3000 m behind Jakob Ingebrigtsen. Marta Pérez was fourth in the 1500 m.
Then, in five weeks of July, Mohamed Katir rewrote the Spanish middle-distance book: 12:50.79 for 5000 m in Florence on 10 June, 3:28.76 for 1500 m in Monaco on 9 July — taking down the 3:28.95 Fermín Cacho had held since 1997 — and 7:27.64 for 3000 m in Gateshead on 13 July. The 1500 m and 3000 m marks are still the Spanish records in 2026; the 5000 m he improved himself to 12:45.01 in 2023. Every mention of those marks now carries a note: in 2024 Katir was banned for whereabouts failures and for tampering with the investigation, and the longer of the two bans runs to 6 February 2028.
One Bronze and Four Fourths
Spain sent 55 athletes to the Tokyo Games and won one medal, and it was also a national record. In the triple jump final on 1 August 2021 Ana Peleteiro opened with 14.55 m, jumped 14.77 m in the second round to move into the medal positions, fouled, jumped 14.63 m, and in the fifth round went 14.87 m — her second Spanish record of the evening — to take the bronze back from Shanieka Ricketts, whose 14.84 m had displaced her a round earlier. Three centimetres. Ahead of her Yulimar Rojas closed with a world record of 15.67 m and Patrícia Mamona took silver with 15.01 m. The 14.87 is still the Spanish record in 2026.
Hover or tab on a column. The 50 km walk was contested for the last time at these Games. Sources: Olympics.com results, Tokyo 2020; Wikipedia, Spain at the 2020 Summer Olympics (athletics). Katir's result stands; his ban, imposed in 2024 for whereabouts failures and tampering, runs to 6 February 2028. Verified September 2026.
Spain's top-eight finishes in Tokyo, as a table
| Place | Athlete | Event | Detail |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3rd | Ana Peleteiro | Triple jump | 14.87 m · Spanish record · 1 Aug |
| 4th | Eusebio Cáceres | Long jump | 8.18 m · 3 cm from bronze |
| 4th | Álvaro Martín | 20 km walk | 1:21:46 |
| 4th | María Pérez | 20 km walk | 1:30:05 · 8 s from bronze |
| 4th | Marc Tur | 50 km walk | fourth |
| 5th | Adel Mechaal | 1500 m | 3:30.77 |
| 5th | Adrián Ben | 800 m | fifth |
| 5th | Ayad Lamdassem | Marathon | fifth |
| 6th | Asier Martínez | 110 m hurdles | sixth |
| 6th | Diego García | 20 km walk | sixth |
| 8th | Mohamed Katir | 5000 m | 13:06.60 · banned since 2024, to 6 Feb 2028 |
Everything else finished a step short. Eusebio Cáceres jumped 8.18 m in the last round of the long jump to move into bronze position and was pushed to fourth seconds later by Miltiadis Tentoglou's 8.41 m; the bronze, Maykel Massó's 8.21 m, was three centimetres away. Álvaro Martín was fourth in the 20 km walk in 1:21:46, María Pérez fourth in the women's race in 1:30:05, eight seconds from a medal, and Marc Tur fourth in the last Olympic 50 km walk ever held. Mechaal was fifth in the 1500 m in 3:30.77, Adrián Ben fifth in the 800 m, Ayad Lamdassem fifth in the marathon; Asier Martínez and Diego García sixth; Katir eighth in the 5000 m. The two walkers who were fourth in Sapporo won Olympic gold together three years later, in Paris — that story is in our Spain 2023 page and the Spain pillar.
From this cycle · in the archiveJoma Spain COE Tokyo 2020 Olympic Team Official Women PoloThe Spanish Olympic Committee's Tokyo 2020 polo by Joma — white with a navy yoke, the red-and-yellow sash across the chest and the COE rings; the delegation kit nobody sees on the track.50,00 €View piece →Two Joma Contracts, One Cycle
The two pieces we hold from this cycle come from two different contracts. The polo is Olympic delegation kit: white with a navy collar and yoke, a red-and-yellow sash running diagonally across the chest, the Joma mark in white and the COE badge — rings, ESPAÑA, flag — on the left; on the back, ESPAÑA in the colours of the flag on the navy panel. Its label reads 92 percent polyester and 8 percent elastane, a women's large. The running shorts are federation competition kit from the 2021 allocation: red split shorts with ESP in white on the left leg and a fan of yellow arched lines on the right, 95 percent polyester and 5 percent elastane, made in China, a men's small.
Joma has dressed the Spanish athletics federation since 2009 — a four-year renewal was signed in 2013 and the partnership was still funding the team's preparation in 2025 — and, under a separate agreement with the Comité Olímpico Español signed in 2015, it dressed the whole Spanish delegation in Rio and again in Tokyo. The same brand, two principals: the shorts belong to the federation, the polo to the Olympic Committee.
Joma Spain 2021 · in the archiveJoma Spain Pro Elite Team 2021 Running ShortsFederation running shorts of the 2021 allocation — red split shorts with ESP in white and the yellow arched lines of that season's issue. Competition kit, not delegation kit.90,00 €View piece →The Rio delegation kit is in our Spain 2016 page; the seasons on either side of this cycle are Spain 2019 and Spain 2022; the whole national arc is in our history of athletics in Spain.
Spain 2020–21
The two pieces of the Tokyo cycle — the Spanish Olympic Committee's Joma polo marked Tokyo 2020 and the federation's 2021 running shorts. Delegation issue and competition issue, neither of them retail.
How many athletics medals did Spain win at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics?
One. Ana Peleteiro won bronze in the triple jump on 1 August 2021 with 14.87 m, a Spanish record set in the fifth round, three centimetres ahead of Shanieka Ricketts. Four other Spanish athletes finished fourth: Eusebio Cáceres, Álvaro Martín, María Pérez and Marc Tur.
What did Spain win at the 2021 European Indoor Championships in Toruń?
Five medals: gold for Óscar Husillos in the 400 m (46.22), silver for Ana Peleteiro in the triple jump (14.52 m) and Jorge Ureña in the heptathlon (6158), and bronze for Jesús Gómez in the 1500 m and Adel Mechaal in the 3000 m.
What records did Mohamed Katir set in 2021, and do they still stand?
Spanish records at 5000 m (12:50.79, Florence, 10 June), 1500 m (3:28.76, Monaco, 9 July, beating Fermín Cacho's 1997 mark) and 3000 m (7:27.64, Gateshead, 13 July). The 1500 m and 3000 m still stand in 2026; he lowered the 5000 m himself to 12:45.01 in 2023. Katir is serving a ban that runs to 6 February 2028 for whereabouts failures and tampering.
What kit did Spain wear in the Tokyo cycle, and which pieces are in the archive?
Joma made both the federation's competition kit and, under a separate contract with the Spanish Olympic Committee, the delegation kit presented on 1 June 2021. The Spain collection holds the COE Tokyo 2020 polo and the federation's 2021 running shorts.
Sources and References
- Olympics.com — Tokyo 2020 postponed — the 24 March 2020 decision
- RFEA / AEEA — Historial de los Campeonatos de España Absolutos — the 2020 championships across four Madrid venues and the champions
- Wikipedia — 2021 European Athletics Indoor Championships — the five Toruń medals
- Wikipedia — Athletics at the 2020 Summer Olympics, women’s triple jump — the round-by-round final: Peleteiro 14.77 and 14.87, Ricketts 14.84, Rojas 15.67
- Olympics.com — Tokyo 2020 men’s 20 km walk results — Álvaro Martín fourth in 1:21:46
- Olympics.com — Tokyo 2020 women’s 20 km walk results — María Pérez fourth in 1:30:05
- Wikipedia — Athletics at the 2020 Summer Olympics, men’s long jump — Cáceres 8.18 m, three centimetres from Massó’s bronze
- El Español — Katir breaks Cacho’s 1500 m record (9 July 2021) — the 3:28.76 in Monaco
- Wikipedia — Mohamed Katir — the three 2021 records, the 12:45.01 of 2023 and the ban to 6 February 2028
- El Español — Joma and the COE present the Tokyo kit (1 June 2021) — the delegation collection and its presentation
- Joma — sponsor of the RFEA — the federation partnership since 2009 and the 2013 renewal