“The game of the 1,500 has changed and I am going to fight for the medals”

Mario García Romo (Salamanca, 23 years old) is one of the new sensations of the 1,500 in Spain. European bronze, fourth in the world, he has run in 3: 30.20. This summer they will face each other with the Norwegian Jakob Ingebrigtsen. Every athlete’s story is different, but yours is very unique. He left Villar de Gallimazo, a town of 75 inhabitants in Salamanca, went through a University in Mississippi and shone in the prestigious NCAA (US university league).. Now he is in Boulder, Colorado, in the elite supergroup of his brand ON.

He grew up in Spain, but much of his training as an athlete has been American, he has that impudence… Saying that he wants world and Olympic medals.

I disagree, I think that is the Spanish mentality. What happens is that the competitions in the United States are very abundant and in the end that attitude is seen much more and is strengthened. But have you seen the Spanish athletes of now? Everyone is going to conquer the world, people like Adrián Ben, Mariano García, Asier Martínez… People compete more now at an international level, which is ultimately what allows you to gain experience and makes that mentality, if you don’t have fear no one, flourish. The NCAA came in handy for me, because above all I learned not to focus so much on sensations, but on having a plan and trusting everyone behind me.

And now we come to the group he is in, the one from ON, in Boulder (Colorado). They train in the snow, at an altitude of 1,600 meters, a hard place, but tough… with top-level athletes.

When that opportunity presented itself to me, I saw it clearly. There was a high-level coach like Dathan Ritzenheim, with a lot of experience, he was an Olympian. He knew that he was capable of leading a group of this caliber. I also really liked that the ON brand, which was betting on product development, that now the technological revolution is important. And there were people like Ollie Hoare, who ran 1,500. And at the same time that I arrived, Yared Nuguse, who is already one of the best in the history of the United States… A great team. In addition, the Denver airport is next door, the third busiest in the world, ideal for going to Europe.

And how is life there? I guess many hours of training…

Professional life is boring, but at the same time you are very busy, because you have to dedicate a lot to rest. You can’t sleep eight hours, because you don’t recover, especially if you train twice a day. So you have to spend many hours lying down. We have a very structured schedule, because in the end everyone in the group is dedicated to athletics. You see, rest and train. There is also the weather, because Colorado in winter is nothing, it is a cold place, where you can go to dinner and little else. I really like training, you are 1,600 meters and you barely realize that you are so high. It is a kind of permanent adaptation to the altitude, and you only notice it from time to time, if you ride hard, or in series. The air is dry, but you can run well, at high intensity.

“Taking care of yourself is the most complicated thing, running doesn’t cost anyone”

Mario Garcia Romo

There is a coach in Spain, Antonio Serrano, who emphasizes ‘invisible training’, that you are an athlete 24 hours a day…

Clear. If you take two people early in the season and have them train together, most of the good guys can do the same workouts. But little by little they are differentiating. Talent obviously plays a role, but I think the ability to assimilate the work also counts. That is characterized by two things: sleep and nutrition. Also have good psychological work, which I take with my specialist. Taking care of yourself is the most complicated part of the sport, because running doesn’t cost anyone.

Sometimes in their group they post the week type of workouts. Explain to me how they are.

I do about 140 kilometers a week and we never lack what we call long run (long race), which are 18 or 20 kilometers. We do it on Tuesdays, in case there is a competition we can also do it. I like to ride hard, because mechanically it works better for me, but without going overboard. We have two days of series, Thursday and Sunday, some more aerobic and others more explosive, and we work a lot on strength, over three days, on slopes and in the gym. I double session, a couple of days a week and sometimes three.

This winter they published a mile in networks during a training session, which practically seemed like a World Cup, with you, with Nuguse, with Hoare… They were on fire.

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Well, that was not intended to be so, the idea was to do 4:02. What happens is that of course, when you put seven people of that caliber together, well, they are always going to run a little faster, right? We did 3:57 and 3:58. Then I did 7:34 in 3,000 and the Spanish mile record (3:51.79).

Mario García Romo poses for AS.
Mario García Romo poses for AS. Joan M. BascuACE DAILY

You are obviously a physical talent, but you seem to apply a great deal of discipline and intelligence to carry out your way of life. Admirable in a 23-year-old boy.

I believe that a very important part of sport is discipline and also trusting time. You have to be clear that if you keep doing things properly and are consistent, the results will come. Double bass. My father is a bricklayer, my mother is a cleaner. That has given me a lot of respect for certain professions and for the whole world.

He has had to live with Ingebrigtsen.

For me he is already the best European athlete of 1,500 in history, although it may be a controversial opinion, but based on results and authority I see it that way. I have a lot of respect for him, because it seems to me that he has done things very well for many years. He is a boy who has been training since he was 12 years old and has developed a very unique method, supervised by various Norwegian experts. Nor do I think that this is the only possible way of working.

Can you win?

It is doable. He was already seen with Wightman in the Eugene World Cup, which he beat in 1,500. The athletes of Europe are getting closer. I in Eugene was one second away from him, before I was ten. Jakob has changed the game in the 1,500m and I want to be there and fight for the medals. That is why for me he is the best, because he is capable of winning a race from the beginning to the end, setting his own pace (he runs at 56 per 400 and never stops). Very few such dominant athletes have we seen. Coe, Cram and company didn’t do that. In any case, I am going to be prepared for everything, in case one day he changes his mind or things are different.

You hold strong rhythms and are fast at the end.

Yes I think so. In fact, it is what we are training. My strengths are tactics and speed. I come from the 800, if you will. And now I’m developing stamina. I do 140 kilometers a week and in the future it will be more. You have to trust time, I am 23 years old, the peak season is supposed to be 25, 26 and 27.

So, are you aiming for a medal in the Paris 2024 Games And in the World Cups in Budapest 2023?

I would say that I see myself fighting for a medal. It is what I want, to fight for the podiums, as I already did in Eugene. It is what I have to focus on, because that way at some point gold, silver or bronze will arrive. I can’t tell you if this summer or the next, or the next. But I want to be one of the best in the world constantly.

Another matter is how the 1,500 have been transformed, now it seems more normal to run around 3:30, something that before was a feat. For what is this?

It seems to me mainly that it is due to the evolution of training, because in the end I believe that people are learning a lot, there is a lot of lactate measurement, more training at altitude, improvements in the force field. This generation has had much better opportunities than years ago. And then also, logically, you cannot ignore the sneakers. In the end, the brands make a big commitment to develop better products that reduce the loss of energy when running. It must be taken into account, but it is not due only to that. It is also because of the high competition, that you have to put your batteries together, because you can do 3:31 and not go to a great championship.

You were one of the athletes who resigned from the indoor European Championship, a decision that not everyone understood.

Yes, look, I have started the preseason and I have already noticed having trained so much indoors. In the end we did not lower the volume so much and I had some discomfort. That shows me that it is the right decision. You have to focus right now on some specific championships, and I hope to compete more in the future, but you have to respect each one’s plan. There were comments that did not seem right to me, because in the end we were accused a bit of not helping Spain, but in reality what we are doing is focusing all our efforts on the summer.

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