The acting Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, has visited the Aerospace Medicine Training Center (CIMA), dependent center of the Air Force, specialized in the optimization and improvement of the capabilities of personnel with responsibility in flight.
The minister has been able to know how to work in the laboratory of human performance in which, precisely, these days train the Spanish athletes of high level who will attend the XVII World Championship of Athletics that will start in Doha (Qatar) on September 27 .
In total, there will be 20 Spanish athletes who will use the facilities of CIMA to prepare the competition. Specifically, they will use the climate chamber for their training, which allows them to simulate the weather conditions that will be found in the Qatari capital.
The minister has been very satisfied that the Spanish elite athletes can use the facilities of the Armed Forces, which implies, in their opinion, "that they are fully integrated into the Spanish society, not only in the maintenance works of the peace or the defense of values, if not also contributing to the study of medicine and the promotion of sports ".
"This close collaboration between elite sport and the Air Force underscores that the Armed Forces are a very important example in all areas: in the spirit of defense, in the study of science and technology and in the collaboration with society, "he reiterated.
Robles spoke with the walker Jesús Ángel García Bragado, one of the best Spanish athletes in history, and with José Ignacio Díaz, another of our international figures in this specialty. Precisely today, they have been in the complex to improve their preparation and train in environmental conditions similar to those they will face in Doha.
Accompanied by the director of CIMA, Colonel María Rosa García, the minister has also visited other facilities of this complex: the disorientation laboratory, the night vision laboratory and the shallow water escape laboratory, among others.
Robles has also been interested in hypobaric chambers, spaces adapted for the crews to experience and become accustomed to the effects of hypoxia, pressure changes and rapid decompressions.
The head of the Torrejón air base, Brigadier General Pablo Guillén, was also present at the visit; the head of command of the Air Force personnel, Lieutenant General Pablo José Castillo; the Director of Health of the Air Force, José María Delgado, and the President of the Spanish Athletics Federation, Raúl Chapado.
Referent in Aero-space Medicine
The Aerospace Medicine Training Center (CIMA), which is part of the Air Force, is the reference center for aerospace medicine in Spain.
With 78 years of experience and with the application of the most innovative technologies, the CIMA develops a wide program of activities to improve the safety and operational capacity of personnel with flight responsibility. Its main areas of action are selection and maintenance, aeromedical training, teaching and applied research.
The Aerospace Medicine Training Center has been certified since 2017 with the ISO 9001-2015 Certification in assessment of the medical aptitude of the personnel of the Forces with flight responsibility; in assessment of the medical aptitude of Civil Aviation personnel; in teaching in Aerospace Medicine, Health Sciences and Human Performance applied to flight; and in research for those same disciplines.