The Gasol brothers: great on and off court

The Princess of Asturias Awards which were held in the city of Oviedo in northern Spain on Friday are the most important awards which are given in Spain.

As usual this year's awards will be handed over by King Felipe VI of Spain in eight different categories ranging from Technical and Scientific Investigation, to Concorde and Sports.

The joint winners of the Sports Award, basketball players, Pau and Marc Gasol have not been able to travel to Oviedo because of their commitments with their respective clubs in the NBA, but the award is a well-deserved recognition for two of Spain's most international sports stars.

It is the second time their achievements have been recognized at the Awards as in 2006 they formed part of the Spanish national basketball team, which had recently been crowned World Champions in Japan, which was given the sport ward.

The eight years in between have also been filled with success: two Olympic silver medals and European titles, the latest of which came this summer, and individual recognition with Pau, now with the Chicago Bulls, winning the NBA title with the LA Lakers and Marc being named in the All-Star team.

However, this year's Prince of Asturias Award is recognition of the work that the pair have carried out off-court as much as on-court.

Marc and Pau were brought up in a household where health was top of the agenda, not just because of their dedication to sport, but also because their mother was a doctor and their father a medical auxiliary, ensuring they had a healthy diet and lifestyle.

In 2013 the brothers launched the Gasol Foundation which had the aim of promoting physical activity and a healthy diet among schoolchildren in Los Angeles (where Pau was then playing) and in Badalona, just outside of Barcelona.

As the Foundation announces on its website: "Children, today, struggle to maintain a consistently healthy lifestyle due to a dangerous and pronounced culture shift in diet, physical activity, and level of environmental and emotional stress. Affecting countries both rich and poor, this shift has become one of the most serious global public health challenges of the 21st century."

In 2014 the Gasol Foundation launched the 'Vida' (Life) Program alongside the Partnership for Los Angeles Schools and Parent College in 2014.

It focuses efforts on youth and parent-based outreach and engagement in the Boyle Heights area of Los Angeles and is about to start work in the underprivileged South LA and Watts areas.

Meanwhile the "L'Esport Suma" program (Sport Adds) aims to use sport as a educational tool in some of the poorer regions of Badalona, looking to help the integration of 180 children and 120 families.

The Gasols may be magnificent sporting ambassadors for Spain, both in Europe and in the U.S., but the work they have begun with the Gasol Foundation will continue long after the shine on their World and Olympic medals has gone and hopefully will bear fruit in a generation of fit and healthy children who one day could follow in their sporting footsteps. Endit