Double Kicks: Paralluelo’s Parallel Spanish Successes (Salma Paralluelo)

In twelve months Salma Paralluelo won the Under-17 European Championship with Spain, won the Under-17 World Cup in Uruguay, competed at the senior European Indoor Championships in Glasgow as the second-youngest athlete ever to do so, scored a hat-trick against Portugal at a second Under-17 Euro, and won two golds at the European Youth Olympic Festival. She was fourteen when it started. She tells She Kicks how it works: up at half four to clear her homework, football on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, running on Tuesday and Thursday, and teachers who schedule her tests around competitions. Athletics has given her the stamina to treat ninety minutes as short, and competing against adults has made her mature faster. Asked when she must choose, she says her body will tell her.