Carolina Desireé José Padrón Ríos (born March 20, 1983) is a

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

n-Mexican sportscaster, journalist and television host currently working for

ESPN Deportes ESPN Deportes (, ) is an American multinational Spanish-language pay television sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (which owns the ...

and ESPN Mexico. Padrón is the co-anchor of ESPN's Spanish version of ''

SportsCenter ''SportsCenter'' (SC) is an American television sports news broadcasting show broadcast by ESPN. Originally anchored by Chris Berman, George Grande, Greg Gumbel, Lee Leonard, Bob Ley, Sal Marchiano and Lou Palmer, it premiered on Septem ...

'' and also has covered sporting events such as the

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often called the World Cup, is an international association football competition among the senior List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams of the members of the FIFA, Fédération Internatio ...

and the

Summer Olympics The Summer Olympic Games, also known as the Summer Olympics or the Games of the Olympiad, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The inaugural Games took place in 1896 in Athens, then part of the King ...

Career

Padrón has a degree in Social Communication from the Universidad Santa Maria and earned a Masters in Journalism from CEU San Pablo University in Spain through a grant from the Fundacion Carolina. Padrón started her career in 2006 as an intern for ''Radio Marca'' of

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

, Spain which was also made possible by the grant from the Fundacion Carolina. Padrón then moved back to her native Venezuela where she worked for Meridiano Televisión covering various events such as the

2010 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup The 2010 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup was the 5th edition of the tournament. It was held in Germany, who also hosted the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup a year later, from 13 July to 1 August 2010. Sixteen teams, comprising representatives from all si ...

, the

2010 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup The 2010 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup women's football tournament was the second such tournament, and was held in Trinidad and Tobago from 5 to 25 September 2010. Sixteen teams, comprising representatives from all six confederations, took part in ...

and also covered the

2007 Copa América The 2007 Campeonato Sudamericano Copa América, known simply as the 2007 Copa América or 2007 Copa América Venezuela, was the 42nd edition of the Copa América, the South-American championship for international association football teams. The c ...

for

Univision Univision () is an American Spanish-language terrestrial television, free-to-air television network owned by TelevisaUnivision. It is the United States' largest provider of Spanish-language content. The network's programming is aimed at the L ...

network Telefutura. (now known as UniMás) In December 2010, Padrón moved to

Mexico City Mexico City is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Mexico, largest city of Mexico, as well as the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North America. It is one of the most important cultural and finan ...

to work for

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

as a co-anchor for the network’s flagship program, ''SportsCenter''. She replaced fellow Venezuelan

Adriana Monsalve Adriana Monsalve (born July 27, 1977) is a Venezuelan sportscaster, journalist who formerly worked for TUDN. Career Monsalve became famous as the lead singer in the girl band "Chikas" and in the pop bands "Tartara" in Venezuela, and "Latin Fiest ...

who moved to

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

to host '' Nación ESPN''. Padrón has covered various sporting events for ESPN such as the

Caribbean Series The Caribbean Series ( Spanish: ''Serie del Caribe'') is an annual club tournament contested by professional baseball teams in Latin America. It is organized by the Caribbean Professional Baseball Confederation. The series is normally played in ...

, the

World Baseball Classic The World Baseball Classic (WBC), also referred to as the Classic, is an international baseball tournament sanctioned by the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC), the sport's global governing body, and organized in World Baseball Clas ...

, the Mexican Tennis Open, various important European football matches, the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events i ...

and two

s (

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

and

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

). On December 7, 2015, Padrón along with her colleague Jorge Eduardo Sánchez anchored the first ''SportsCenter'' from ESPN's new four-studio production facility in Mexico City. Since August 2017, Padrón has hosted her own edition of ''SportsCenter'' called ''SC5''.

Personal life

Padrón was born in

Maracaibo Maracaibo ( , ; ) is a city and municipality in northwestern Venezuela, on the western shore of the strait that connects Lake Maracaibo to the Gulf of Venezuela. It is the largest city in Venezuela and is List of cities in Venezuela by population ...

but was raised in

Puerto la Cruz Puerto La Cruz () is a port city located in Anzoátegui State, in Venezuela. It is the seat of the Juan Antonio Sotillo Municipality. The city has road connections to the state capital, Barcelona, to Lecheria and to Guanta. Geography The cit ...

. Padrón currently resides in

and also lived in

when she worked for ''Radio Marca''. In 2013, Padrón along with her fellow ''SportsCenter'' anchors Álvaro Morales and Jorge Eduardo Sánchez appeared in a This is ''SportsCenter'' commercial with

Rafael Nadal Rafael Nadal Parera (born 3 June 1986) is a Spanish former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for ...

which aired both in English and Spanish. Padrón has her own blog called ''La Chica del Banquillo''. Padrón became a Mexican citizen on February 10, 2024.

References

External links

Official site
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Padron, Carolina Living people 1983 births People from Maracaibo Venezuelan sports journalists Venezuelan women journalists Venezuelan bloggers Venezuelan women bloggers Venezuelan television presenters Venezuelan women television presenters Venezuelan expatriates in Spain Venezuelan expatriates in Mexico ESPN Latin America Universidad Santa María (Venezuela) alumni People from Puerto la Cruz