Cristina Villanueva Ramos (born 24 February 1976) is a Spanish news and sports journalist who works for

LaSexta La Sexta (; "The Sixth"; stylized as laSexta) is a Spanish free-to-air television channel. It is privately owned and was originally founded on 18 March 2001 as Beca TV that began broadcasting on 1 April 2001, that same year. By 21 July 2003, the ...

. She began her career covering various sports such as swimming, motorcycle racing and basketball for the state broadcaster

Televisión Española Televisión Española (acronym TVE, branded tve, "Spanish Television") is Spain's national state-owned public television broadcaster and the oldest regular television service in the country. It was also the first regular television service in ...

from 1997 to 2004 before doing general newscasting on ''La 2 Noticias'' until 2006. Villanueva began newscasting for LaSexta in 2006 and has presented other programmes on the channel.

Biography

On 24 February 1976, Villanueva was born in Tiana,

Province of Barcelona Barcelona (, ) is a province of eastern Spain, in the center of the autonomous community of Catalonia. The province is bordered by the provinces of Tarragona, Lleida, and Girona, and by the Mediterranean Sea. Its area is .Autonomous University of Barcelona The Autonomous University of Barcelona ( ca, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona; , es, Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona; UAB), is a public university mostly located in Cerdanyola del Vallès, near the city of Barcelona in Catalonia, Spain. ...

with a degree in journalism. She began her broadcasting career working for the state broadcaster

(RTVE) on the

Teledeporte Teledeporte (TDP) is a Spanish free-to-air television channel owned and operated by Televisión Española (TVE), the television division of state-owned public broadcaster Radiotelevisión Española (RTVE). It is the corporation's sports televis ...

channel in 1997. Villanueva covered the 1997 FINA Swimming World Cup held in Barcelona, Tennis'

Federation Cup Federation Cup or Fed Cup is the former name of the premier world team competition in women's tennis. Federation Cup may also refer to: * Capital Football Federation Cup, an Australian territory-based association football tournament *Federation Cup ...

as well as the

ATP Tour The ATP Tour is a worldwide top-tier tennis tour for men organized by the Association of Tennis Professionals. The second-tier tour is the ATP Challenger Tour and the third-tier is the ITF Men's World Tennis Tour. The equivalent women's organis ...

, the

2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 (Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from 1 ...

in Sydney, the

2004 Summer Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics ( el, Θερινοί Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες 2004, ), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad ( el, Αγώνες της 28ης Ολυμπιάδας, ) and also known as Athens 2004 ( el, Αθήνα 2004), ...

in Athens, and Basketball's

Copa del Rey de Baloncesto The Copa del Rey de Baloncesto (English: '' King's Cup of Basketball'') is an annual cup competition for Spanish basketball teams organized by Spain's top professional league, the Liga ACB. History Originally known as the ''Copa de España de B ...

. Villanueva was also an on-track reporter and writing editor for the MotoGP World Championship, and also contributed to the ''Estadio-2'' sports programme. She also read the news on the radio station Ràdio Premià de Mar. In 2004, she decided she wanted to do general newscasting, and moved to read the news on ''La 2 Noticias'', replacing . In 2006, Villaneuva was signed to leave RTVE and joined the new

television channel, becoming part of its news broadcasting team alongside Helena Resano and Cristina Saavedra. She was part of the team of LaSexta broadcasters that covered the

2006 FIFA World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Germany 2006, was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host the ...

in Germany and the

2006 FIBA World Championship The 2006 FIBA World Championship was the 15th FIBA World Championship, the international basketball world championship for men's national teams. The tournament was hosted by Japan and held from 19 August to 3 September 2006. It was co-organised by ...

in Japan. Villanueva, Resano and

Mamen Mendizábal María del Carmen Mendizábal García (born 15 January 1976) is a Spanish journalist and television presenter who has worked for the television channel LaSexta since 2006. She began her career at the national radio station Cadena SER as a journal ...

co-presented the two-hour avant-garde journalistic magazine programme ''Sexto Sentido'' that lasted a single season from November 2006 to March 2007. She would conduct reports and interviews with her colleagues on the show. Villanueva co-presented the sports television progamme ''No me digas que no te gusta el fútbol'' with former basketball player

Juan Manuel López Iturriaga Juan Manuel "Juanma" López Iturriaga (born February 4, 1959) is a Spanish retired professional basketball player. He played shooting guard and small forward and appeared in a total of 90 games with the Spain national basketball team, winning a ...

for two seasons between April 2007 and May 2008. During mid-2011, she presented the weekday two-hour programme ''Verano Directo''.
In 2013, she began writing the book ''Desplegando velas'', which was published six years later. Villaneuva was inspired to author the book to eliminate the anguish she had been suffering in her life due to

impostor syndrome Impostor syndrome, also known as impostor phenomenon or impostorism, is a psychological occurrence in which an individual doubts their skills, talents, or accomplishments and has a persistent internalized fear of being exposed as a fraud. Despi ...

Personal life

She is married to the journalist Jorge García, with whom she has two children, Villaneuva is a feminist.

Awards

She has been awarded the Larra Prize for Journalism from the Madrid Press Association and both the

TP de Oro The TP de Oro were a series of Spanish annual television awards awarded between 1972 and 2011 by ''Teleprograma'' magazine. In 2012 they were absorbed by Fotogramas de Plata awards. References External links Web oficial de TPIMDb Page Spani ...

and the

Premios Ondas The Premios Ondas (Spanish: literally "wave awards", also known in English as the Ondas Awards or simply The Ondas) have been given since 1954 by Radio Barcelona, a subsidiary of Cadena SER, in recognition of professionals in the fields of radio ...

accolades collectively for her teamwork.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Villanueva, Cristina 1976 births Living people People from Maresme Autonomous University of Barcelona alumni 20th-century Spanish women 21st-century Spanish women writers Spanish women journalists Spanish women television presenters Spanish television presenters Spanish women television journalists Women writers from Catalonia Spanish sports journalists Women sports journalists