Alejandro García crossed the finish line in San Sebastián as the wheelchair category winner on Sunday, wrapping up a rapid rise in adapted athletics just two years after first taking up the sport.
The Vitoria native was among nearly 30,000 athletes who took the start for the annual race, according to El Correo.
“I had never practiced an individual sport, but the truth is I am loving it,” García told El Correo. “Here you are always going to play and your performance in the competition depends exclusively on you.”
García lives with a degenerative condition involving the shortening of his calves and adductors, requiring the use of a wheelchair for athletic activity. He initially focused on basketball before branching out into racing during the recent running boom.
“Basketball has given me a lot,” García told El Correo. He began playing at age 16 with the Javi Conde Paralympic club in Basauri before eventually reaching the elite tier of Spanish adapted basketball with Zuzenak in Vitoria.
García currently plays for Bidaideak Bilbao BSR, the same Basque club where Josh Turek played a decade ago prior to his election as an Iowa state senator for the Democratic Party. He now splits his time between intense track training in Vitoria and traveling to Bilbao three to four times a week for basketball practices.
“It is you against yourself and you make a great mental effort in addition to the physical exercise itself,” García told El Correo of his training routine, which mirrors that of able-bodied runners through structured speed work and long-distance sessions.
