Teresa Perales Fernández, 1st Marchioness of Perales (born 29 December 1975), is an S2 classified Spanish swimmer, politician and motivational speaker who has won a total of 28 Paralympic medals at the 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2020 and 2024 Summer Paralympics. She is the most decorated Spanish Paralympian in history, and holds the current Paralympic record in women's 100m freestyle (S2) following the 2024 Summer Paralympics.
In 1995, at the age of nineteen, Perales was diagnosed with neuropathy and lost the use of her legs within three months. Following the 2000 Games, she earned a Diploma in Physiotherapy and married Mariano Menor. She later had a child with him following the 2008 Games. In addition to swimming, Perales has been a politician, teacher, entrepreneur and motivational speaker. As an Aragonese Party (PAR) politician, she was in office from 2003 to 2007. Following her departure, she co-wrote an autobiography with her husband. Despite having no plans to return to politics, she was symbolically on the 2011 ballot for PAR as a member of the Congreso de los Diputados. Perales has supported a number of causes including Doctors Without Borders, Fundación Carlos Sanz and Fundación Vicente Ferrer.
Taking up swimming at the age of 19, she joined the Aragon-based disability sport club CAI CDM a year later. A year after that, in 1997, she competed in her first Spanish championships, in which she earned several medals. The following year, she made her national team debut at the IPC (International Paralympic Committee) Swimming World Championships in Christchurch, New Zealand, where she earned a bronze medal. She then went on to compete in the 1999 European Championship, 2000 Summer Paralympics, 2001 European Championships, 2002 IPC World Championship, 2004 Summer Paralympics, 2006 IPC World Swimming Championship, and 2008 Summer Paralympics. She took a break from swimming following the 2008 Games to give birth to her son. She returned to the pool in 2011 for the European Championship and then competed at the 2012 Summer Paralympics. She earned at least one medal in every Paralympics, European Championship, and World Championship in which she competed.
Because of her sporting achievements, Perales was awarded the Gran Cruz del Mérito Deportivo and the Medalla de Oro de la Real Orden del Mérito Deportivo. She has earned several other honors including being named the Woman of the Year by the Spanish women's magazine Mujer hoy.
Personal Perales was born in Zaragoza on 29 December 1975. She has one sibling, a brother, who is seven years younger than her. When she was 15 years old, her father died from leukemia, and she was then raised by her single mother. At the age of 19, she developed neuropathy and lost feeling in her legs over a three-month period. The condition is relatively rare, and doctors did not initially know how to treat it. Instead, they were waiting to see how it progressed before deciding on the proper treatment. When she left the hospital for the first time in a wheelchair, she was embarrassed because she felt a need to explain to others the events that led to her becoming a paraplegic. She has very little leg strength and no sensation in her legs, and if she cuts herself while shaving her legs, she cannot feel the cut. Prior to contracting neuropathy, she was an active karate practitioner. The last time she was able to walk without assistance was on 10 May 1995 during the celebration of Zaragoza's la Recopa victory. Perales earned a Diploma in Physiotherapy, which she earned from the Universidad de Zaragoza where she was a student from 1996 to 1999.
Perales is married to Mariano Menor and has one child, a son. Perales met her husband, a journalist, during the 2000 Sydney Paralympics because he was interviewing her. They started dating following those Games. He proposed to Perales at the Eiffel Tower following a taxi ride to the location and a limo ride back to a Paris hotel. She married him in 2004 after the Athens Paralympics. She had problems selecting a wedding dress because some interfered with her ability to roll in her wheel chair. She got married in the Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar in 2005. She stood up from her wheelchair in order to take her vows. The ceremony was attended by a number of high-ranking political figures. She had her son after the 2008 Beijing Paralympics.
Perales was an Aragonese Party politician. She served as the directora general for Ayuda a la Dependencia in 2003 after having been approached to run following her success at the Sydney Paralympics. She served as the Deputy of Cortes de Aragón from June 2003 to February 2006. She left office in 2007, has no plans to return and does not consider herself very political. In 2008, she worked as an adviser and Sports Development in Zaragoza. In 2008, she also served as the executive of Las juventudes del PAR. In this role, she served as the president of the ninth Rolde Choben Congress. She ventured back into politics on a symbolic level in 2011 when she was on the ballot for PAR as a member of the Congress of Deputies. She has also served as the CEO of Care Dependence on the Government of Aragon.
In 2007, Perales co-wrote an autobiography with her husband about her life titled Mi Vida Sobre Ruedas, attending at least one event to promote the book. In 2012 in Madrid, she participated in a demonstration against the government to oppose cuts to the disability sector as they were cutting benefits to people with disabilities, a category of people who were facing high unemployment.
Perales is a teacher, entrepreneur and motivational speaker. She spent two years teaching at the Universidad de Zaragoza. She has spoken at the Universidad San Jorge de Zaragoza. She was the president of Fundación Pilotos 4x4 sin Fronteras from 2004 to 2006. She has visited the desert several times, and faced difficulties using the toilet, and solved this problem by creating a special chair for this which involves a robe and a hole in the bottom of the chair. She was active in supporting Madrid's bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics and Paralympics. She has supported efforts by Doctors Without Borders to provide a treatment on avoiding the spread of AIDS from breastfeeding mothers to their offspring.
Perales was a major sponsor for December 2012 Gala Solidaria Deportivo-Benéfica, which benefitted Fundación Carlos Sanz, an organisation that helps feed the hungry in Aragon. In 2012, while serving as an ambassador for the Fundación Vicente Ferrer, she traveled to India where she spoke with low-caste Indian women with disabilities. In December 2012, she attended an event in support of Intermón Oxfam.
, she lives in Zaragoza.
Swimming
Perales is a S5, SB4, SM5 classified Paralympic swimmer and is a member of CD Asser: Spain. She is the most decorated Spanish Paralympian in history. , her swimming coach is Angelo Santamaria, who has been with her since 2000 and during her time serving in political office. When training, Perales can spend up to four or five hours at a time in the pool and an hour in the gym for a training day lasting up to six hours. She specialises in the 50 m butterfly, her favourite stroke.
Perales took up swimming at the age of 19 at a pool in Salou by accident and stuck with the sport because she liked the feeling of being weightless in the water. When she tried swimming for the first time following contracting neuropathy, she did so wearing a lifejacket. Within a year of that first swim, she joined CAI CDM, a sports club in Zaragoza for people with disabilities.
In 1997, Perales won her first national swimming championship. She made her international debut a year later at the World Championships. At the 1999 European Championship in Braunschweig, Germany, she earned three bronze medals and three silver medals. Two years later, at the 2001 European Championships in Stockholm, Sweden, she improved on that medal haul with one gold medal, four silver medals, a bronze medal and two fourth-place finishes.
In 2007, she participated in the British Championship Short Course Swimming Championship, where she set a pair of world records in the 100 and 200 meter freestyle events and would have set qualifying times for the 2008 Beijing Paralympics if they had been in a 50-metre pool. The world records she broke were her own and dated back to 2002. That year, she also participated in the United States National Short Course Swimming Championship, where she earned five gold medals in the 50 m backstroke, freestyle and butterfly events, 100 m freestyle and 200 m freestyle event. By 2008, she had earned 14 career medals at the European Championships. In 2008, she participated in the French Swimming Championships and International Swimming Open where she earned three gold medals in the 100 m freestyle, 50 m freestyle and 50 m backstroke events.
A year after the 2008 Summer Paralympics, following the 2009 European Championships, Perales took a break from swimming in order to give birth and spend time with her young son. She returned to the pool in April 2011. Her first competition following her return was the European Championship in Berlin where she earned a gold medal in the 100 m freestyle; four silver medals in 50 and 200 m freestyle, 50 butterfly and 4x100 freestyle relay; and three bronzes in the 200 m medley and 4x100 medley relay 4x50 freestyle events. Her performance helped Spain finish third overall in the medal count.
World Championships Perales made her international debut for Spain at the IPC World Championships in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 1998, where she earned a bronze in the 50 m freestyle event; three fourth-place finishes in the 4 x 50 m freestyle 20 points relay, 4 x 50 m medley 20 points relay and the 400 m freestyle; a seventh-place finish in the 100 m libre event; and an eighth-place finish in the 50 m butterfly. Four years later, at the 2002 IPC World Championship in Mar del Plata, Argentina, she earned five silver medals and two bronze medals. At the 2006 IPC World Swimming Championship in Durban, South Africa, she earned one silver, two bronzes and had one fourth- and one fifth-place finish. Her non-medal events were both relays.
Results + Medal Year Event Time Bronze 1998 50 m Freestyle S6 38.08 Silver 2002 50 m Freestyle S5 37.36 Silver 2002 100 m Freestyle S5 01:20.9 Bronze 2002 200 m Freestyle S5 02:58.4 Bronze 2002 50 m Backstroke S5 45.63 Silver 2002 100 m Breaststroke SB4 02:06.3 Silver 2002 50 m Butterfly S5 43.47 Silver 2002 200 m Individual Medley SM5 03:39.0 Bronze 2006 50 m Freestyle S5 39.24 Bronze 2006 50 m Backstroke S5 49.11 Silver 2006 50 m Butterfly S5 49.46
Paralympics Perales competed at four Paralympic Games: the 2000 Summer Paralympics, 2004 Summer Paralympics, 2008 Summer Paralympics and 2012 Summer Paralympics. She won her first medals at the 2000 Summer Paralympics, earning a bronze in the 100 and 200 m. freestyle, bronze in the 50 m. backstroke and 50 m. freestyle, and a silver in the 50 m. butterfly. The only events for which she failed to make the podium were the 20 point relays in the Medley Relay 4 x 50 and 4 x 50 Freestyle Relay events, in which her teams finished seventh and fifth respectively.