María Vicente changes direction. The Catalan athlete, 25 years old, has decided to end her training period in San Sebastián alongside Ramón Cid to move to Loughborough (England), where she will join the combined events group led by Aston Moore. Her decision adds to the growing list of Spanish athletes who seek training environments outside their borders to keep progressing.
The new phase for Vicente will be marked by working with Moore, a Jamaican coach based in the United Kingdom who has guided Katarina Johnson-Thompson to two world titles in the heptathlon and the Olympic silver in Paris 2024. The British athlete is one of the major international references in the combined events and will share training space with the Spaniard.
View this post on Instagram
The change ends a six-and-a-half-year relationship with Ramón Cid, one of the most renowned coaches in Spanish athletics. The decision, as the coach himself explained to Ignacio Romo in ABC, is the result of months of discussions and has his backing. Vicente seeks new stimuli, different technical concepts, and a plan that will allow her to tackle the coming years of her career with confidence.
The athlete has bid farewell to San Sebastián with a message of gratitude on her social networks. “Here I have found a training group that has become my family and a coach who has become one of the pillars of my life,” she explained. She also acknowledged that, although she has been happy during this phase, she feels that the moment has arrived to start anew.
A new opportunity after injuries
Vicente approaches this change after several years marked by physical setbacks. The toughest moment came on March 1, 2024, when she suffered a rupture of the left Achilles tendon during the high-jump competition at the World Indoor Championships in Glasgow. The injury kept her from the Paris Olympic Games, for which she aimed to qualify with chances to compete for top honors.
Her return to competition came in May 2025, more than a year after the injury. In 2026, physical discomforts again delayed her outdoor debut, although she managed to close the season with a standout performance at the European Championship in Birmingham.
There she finished eighth in the heptathlon and, in addition, broke her own Spanish record with 6,372 points, a mark that confirmed her ability to return to the highest level after a long period of difficulties.
A trend that continues
María Vicente’s departure adds to other recent moves by Spanish athletes who have chosen to train abroad. Mohamed Attaoui and Marta García are developing their preparation in Switzerland; Jordan Díaz moved to the United States to train in the Kansas State University environment, and Águeda Marqués began a new phase with Gjert Ingebrigtsen. Additionally, Josué Canales started a new chapter in Australia this year.
The reasons behind each athlete are personal, but these changes reflect a search for specialized groups, new methodologies, and environments that foster athletic development. In Vicente’s case, the goal is to capitalize on her youth and potential in the combined events to build a new phase with eyes set on the upcoming major international championships.
