From the 1992 Olympics to the 2024 Paralympics, the long race of Rosario Murcia-Gangloff

There are a number of comeback stories in sport. But that of Rosario Murcia-Gangloff is anything but ordinary. At 59 years old and with the Paris 2024 Games in sight, the French athlete is picking up the thread of a story that began thirty-two years ago. The 1^is August 1992, in Barcelona, ​​Rosario Murcia-Gangloff had competed in the Olympic 10,000m event, in the birthplace of her father, a Spanish immigrant to France. On Sunday, September 8, in Paris, she is this time competing in the Paralympic marathon.

Between these two global events? The Lyonnaise suffered a retinal detachment, before being struck down by glaucoma, a degenerative disease of the optic nerve, which led her to disabled sport and is now classified in category T12, reserved for the visually impaired.

“I’m a little young granny”jokes the athlete, whose experience with sportsmen has given him many years of experience “returned in [sa] youth “. “We were as beautiful as them, now we are older than the staff [de l’équipe de France]. » If Rosario Murcia-Gangloff says “we”, it is because the first of her two guides, who will accompany her for the first ten kilometers, is none other than her husband, Gilles Gangloff, 60 years old.

For this return, the marathon runner has also brought back her long-time coach, Bernard Pelletier, 77 years old. “You’re taking me out of retirement, but I’m very happy to return to it.”he replied. “He didn’t think. He knows the bird. It made me dizzy when he said yes.”says the athlete. “It was impossible to say no to him”the technician continues.

Holder of the national 10,000m record for twenty years, several times French champion and world team cross-country medallist, Rosario Murcia-Gangloff is a high-level runner who is not coming back to make up the numbers. “I want to get on the podium, we have done a preparation aimed at three hours”she asserts.

Bernard Pelletier confirms: “It’s not crazy, the medal is decided around three hours.” It only took a few recovery races to convince the trainer that his protégé could claim it: “More than a talent, she is passionate. If she doesn’t run, she is sick.”

“A genetic liability”

To qualify, she ran the Paris Marathon twice, one of the toughest races on the circuit. The result? 3:07 in 2023 and 3:08 in April, in unusual circumstances. A few days earlier, she had fallen in training, her foot in a rut. “My right eye is blind and my left eye has many pathologies, including a problem with relief and visual field.”justifies Rosario Murcia-Gangloff, who does not distinguish, for example, staircases according to their direction.

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