I understood that life is undulating, that it is not always incredible nor always horrible
Jaime Alguersuari, 'Reinvent yourself'
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I can visualize the García Romo brothers as children, running around the village of Villar de Gallimazo (Salamanca), on their way to or from school, running around under the cold weather of winter, or under the sunshine of summer.
A small handful of irreducibles populate the town. Two hundred in total.
Only six children in the entire school.
Two of those six children are the García Romo brothers, Jaime is the oldest and Mario, the youngest. Five years pass between them.
–How were we going to play football? There weren't enough kids at school to start a team of anything! There, we kids were condemned to individual sports. That's why we ran - Jaime García Romo (29) tells me, who has now retired from athletics and has a brilliant degree in Sports Management from Eastern Kentucky University and the product manager at On, the Swiss sports brand that dresses the Zurich. Barcelona Marathon.
(The test, which returns to the streets of Barcelona tomorrow with a new circuit, has more than 20,000 marathon runners).
–I had started running before my brother –recalls Jaime García Romo–. It's normal, I was the oldest. But Mario appeared immediately. At the age of five he was already competing in school races.
(Mario García Romo is an essential middle distance runner today, one of the best milquinientistas in the world, a European medalist, a serious candidate to represent Spain in the next Paris Games; he is also an athlete of the OAC, the On Athletics Club, like Geordie Beamish , Yared Nuguse or Hellen Obiri).
–He gave us our passion, but also the support of our parents. I remember them getting up at four in the morning, on a Sunday, to take us to a cross country in Atapuerca. Over the years, my mother (Belén) ended up getting into running. Since she was in the stands in Salamanca, while we were training, she decided to start running too. Today she still goes out three times a week. And from time to time she competes in a 10K race.
If we rewind to his youth, the one that had led him to compete in two European Championships in the junior category (today it is called U20; he was fifth in the 10,000 in Rieti, in 2013), Jaime García Romo lights up.
He remembers being happy, pushing himself with his little brother, a great talent who always won everything, always, since he was a child.
–There is a wonderful video on YouTube. You can see Mario, aged eleven, running a 500m in 1m11s.
(And that record, reader, would be outrageous even for a good 25-year-old athlete; in fact, it has been the world record for his age).
Then, Jaime García Romo goes dark.
It darkens if he remembers the injuries.
The injuries, the injuries.
Multiple micro-tears in both Achilles tendons, the dreaded Haglund syndrome that has shattered so many athletic dreams...
–When I saw that those problems were recurring and that there was no way to progress, then I understood that I had to look for a professional outlet.
-And what he did?
–I went to study in the United States. And I spent two years there, from 2018 to 2020, and that changed my life. I was studying with Samuel Abascal (son of the legendary José Manuel Abascal) and David Bascuñana. I was inspired by the athletic culture of the United States and competed again. Being in that world, I managed to run the 5,000 in 14m00s. And I trained for work. And after a year, I told Mario: “Come.”
–And he obeyed him! You were the older brother...
(They even faced each other in some cross country competition).
–Mario went to Ole Mississippi, to study Biotechnology. And he did it, even though there were those who advised him against it. 'If you want to be an Olympian, don't go to the United States,' they even told him. Time has proven them wrong.
(Inspired by the García Romo, today dozens of Spanish athletes appear on the lists of university meetings in the United States).
