Cycling
The Cordovan cyclist, winner of five Paralympic medals, visits Murcia at the start of a year in which he will fight for the world title
Alfonso Cabello (La Rambla, Córdoba, 28 years old) is considered one of the best adapted athletes in the history of Spain. A road and track cyclist, he has five Paralympic medals to his credit at London 2012, Rio de Janeiro 2016 and Tokyo 2020 (two gold and three bronze, all of them on track). Added to this are six world titles and more than a dozen achievements at the national level. With his mind set on Paris 2024, the cyclist is already preparing for the World Cup that will take place in October this year, also in the French capital.
Since childhood he has been interested in sports. With courage and confidence he has managed to get here, but in his head he continues with the winning mentality of continuing to overcome barriers and achieve goals. Cabello has been in Murcia this week to pick up some special bikes at Bicicletas Borrascas.
“Cycling is not just sport. It’s my lifestyle. From a very young age my life was linked to sports, first with swimming and then with the bicycle. It has given me both joy and suffering and I am the way I am thanks to all the barriers that I have had to break, the responsibility, work and sacrifice that it requires, ”says the Cordovan.
“What got me into cycling were wheels. When I was little, I loved everything that had wheels and basically, as the only thing my parents let me try was the bike, I ended up riding a bike, ”explains this benchmark of adapted cycling in Spain.
«I started because I was a crazy kid who jumped all the slopes with his mountain bike and did everything that a priori he couldn’t do [por su discpacidad]. The more people told me that I couldn’t do it, Alfonso went there to prove to himself and to others that he was capable of anything », he recalls.
Cabello already thinks about the future. “Paris is just around the corner. Unfortunately, with the whole Covid thing, this whole period has been atypical. I would like, why not, to do it well and repeat as in the last three occasions. I was not aware that I had won five medals until the moment they asked me about it and it was highlighted in the press. I hadn’t stopped to think about it. I just want to be happy and enjoy myself along the way », he says.
The medals are the end. But «personally I stay with the times of difficulty or all the obstacles and problems that have been put on my way and I have been overcoming. I am proud of where I have come », he confesses.