Carlos Peralta, an official of the Spanish anti-doping agency (CELAD), has been named its director, replacing Silvia Calzón, the person who hired him five months ago as his number three, director of the prevention department. “It is a commitment to continuity,” declared the Secretary of State for Sports and president of CELAD, José Manuel Rodríguez Uribes, unnecessarily, after announcing the appointment, decided by the agency’s governing council. It is also a ratification of the anti-doping policy initiated with Calzón, more inclined towards prevention than repression.
The profile of Carlos Peralta, a doctor with three master’s degrees and three career civil servant positions, and very young (he was born in 1994), responds to the latest preferences shown by Pedro Sánchez in the election of the members of his Cabinet in Moncloa, department to which, precisely, Silvia Calzón joined eight months after her appointment, replacing José Luis Terreros, dismissed by Uribes in January after denouncing him for alleged irregularities in his work at the head of the agency. Also, his status as an Olympic athlete (as a swimmer, Peralta, born in Malaga, participated in the 2016 Rio Games, at the age of 22) is unusual in an office that has known pure politicians as occupants (Javier Martín del Burgo, deputy socialist, was its first director, replaced by Ana Muñoz, from the Popular Party, and this by Manuel Quintanar, also from the PP), an officer of the Civil Guard (Enrique Gómez Bastida, who when lieutenant directed Operation Puerto in 2006, the largest anti-doping raid ever carried out in the world) and a sports doctor, like Terreros, appointed by José Ramón Lete, the last Secretary of State of the PP, and ratified by the different presidents of the Higher Sports Council of the Governments of Sánchez, María José Rienda, Irene Lozano, José Manuel Franco and Uribes.
“It is very interesting that at the head of CELAD is a person who knows the mentality of the high-level athlete,” highlights Calzón, who has mentored him since his resume arrived at the agency, although both agreed, without ever knowing each other, on the Ministry of Health when Calzón was Secretary of State and Peralta was assigned to the HIV department. “I am impressed by your commitment to public service and your ability to work and study. In his months at CELAD he has also known how to build bridges with the sports federations, with which we have signed several agreements. When I signed him up for Prevention, he told me that he hesitated between continuing to dedicate himself to HIV prevention in Health, a problem with which he is very sensitive due to his commitment to the LGTBI community, and his fight, but which in Spain is very well controlled, or move on to doping. And I convinced him of the importance of prevention with athletes.”
