At the event in Oregon, García won the women's 20 and 35 kilometres walk.

She was honoured at the ceremony that was chaired by COP President Renzo Manyari Velazco, also winning the Best Female Athlete of the Year, while the Peruvian Athletics Sports Federation was the Outstanding Federation of the Year.

Sailor Jean Paul de Trazegnies won the Sunfish North American Championship last year and was recognised as Best Male Athlete of the Year.

The best men's and women's teams were the respective volleyball national teams.

Young tennis player Gonzalo Sebastián Bueno Rodríguez was named the Best Young Male Athlete of the Year, while judoka Luciana Alessandra Julca Preciado claimed the female equivalent accolade.

Shooting sport coach Simone Gissi and badminton's Christina Aicardi were recognised for their work in individual sports, while Francisco Manuel Hervas Tirado was named Team Coach of the Year for his contribution to volleyball.

During the ceremony, which also recognised some of the country's greatest Olympians from over the years too, COP President Velazco made an emotional speech.

"The Olympic Movement has endured throughout history two World Wars, the COVID-19 pandemic, but we have had something very important, resilience, the resilience of the Olympic flame of fire that is forged in that cauldron of hope that rises towards eternity in the sky, is where you, dear Olympians, rise like stars together with the constellation that will illuminate the dream of future generations of Peruvian Olympism," he said.

The event was also attended by Minister of Education, Oscar Manuel Becerra; Mayor of Miraflores, Carlos Canales; Mayor of Surco, Carlos Bruce, President of the Peruvian Sports Institute, Juan Carlos Huerta; President of the National Paralympic Association of Peru, Lucha Villar; as well as Ambassador of Chile in Peru, Oscar Fuentes; and Marc Giacomini, Ambassador of France in Peru.