Ivet Rovira

Happy birthday to Spain’s heptathlete Ivet Rovira, who won a national medal in February by winning the very last event of it.

Valencia, the Spanish Indoor Championships. Ivet went into the final event of the pentathlon needing a race, and she won the 800m outright — the discipline that comes after four others have already emptied you — and took the bronze medal with 3,935 points, a personal best. That is the combined-events athlete’s whole art in one afternoon: still having something when nobody else does.

Outdoors she has scored 5,604 points in the heptathlon at Tarragona, and she is a multiple Catalan combined-events champion, indoors and out, with a third Catalan title to her name. She trains at the CAR de Sant Cugat, Catalonia’s high-performance centre, and races for L’Hospitalet Atletisme.

And then there is the other file. Ivet holds a law degree from Universitat Pompeu Fabra plus two master’s degrees from ESADE, one in advocacy and procedure and one in labour law. Seven events, two days, three degrees. Whatever the opposite of specialising is, she has made a career of it.

Per molts anys, Ivet! Molta salut, molta alegria i un any encara millor que aquest. Endavant! 🎂🎁🎉🫶🫶🇪🇸