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

LaSexta La Sexta (; ; stylised as laSexta) is a privately owned Spanish free-to-air television channel that was founded on 18 March 2001 as Beca TV and began broadcasting on 1 April 2001. By 21 July 2003, the channel ran into debt and was shut down, bu ...

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

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 Equatorial Guinea. T ...

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 (; Spanish: ; ; UAB) is a public university mostly located in Cerdanyola del Vallès, near the city of Barcelona in Catalonia, Spain. , the university consists of 57 departments in the experimental, lif ...

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 as well as the

ATP Tour The ATP Tour (known as ATP World Tour between January 2009 and December 2018) is the sole worldwide top-tier tennis tour for men organized by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) founded in 1990 that replaced the earlier dual Grand Prix ...

, the

2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad, officially branded as Sydney 2000, and also known as the Games of the New Millennium, were an international multi-sport event held from 15 September to 1 October ...

in Sydney, the

2004 Summer Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad (), and officially branded as Athens 2004 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 13 to 29 August 2004 in Athens, Greece. The Games saw 10,625 athletes ...

in Athens, and Basketball's

Copa del Rey de Baloncesto The Copa del Rey de Baloncesto ( English: ''Basketball King's Cup'') 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 Bal ...

. Villanueva was also an on-track reporter and writing editor for the

MotoGP World Championship Grand Prix motorcycle racing is the highest class of motorcycle road racing events held on Road racing, road circuits sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM). Independent motorcycle racing events have been held sin ...

, 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 Cristina Saavedra Pita (A Coruña, Spain, November 13, 1975) is a Spanish journalist. Biography With a degree in journalism from the University of Santiago de Compostela, she began her professional career as a reporter at Televisión de Galic ...

. She was part of the team of LaSexta broadcasters that covered the

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

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 b ...

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'' is a given name, the Spanish and Manx versions of ''John''. The name is of Hebrew origin and has the meaning "God has been gracious." It is very common in Spain and in other Spanish-speaking countries around the world and in the Philippi ...

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 experience in which a person suffers from feelings of intellectual and/or professional fraudulence. One source defines it as "the subjective experience of pe ...

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. History Initially baptized as Los mejores de TP (The best of TP), they were called for the first time in 1972, six y ...

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