Fifteen months laterevent suffered at the Paris Paralympic Gamesin which he found himself without a bronze after a disqualification, Elena Congost smiles again. In the recent The Valencia Marathon broke the European record (2h54:36) for visually impaired athletes and claimed, with her guide Roger Sans, as one of the best athletes in the world during a particularly difficult year due to diagnosis of a tumor in the optic nerve.
Elena Congost, 38, returned to Valencia in a big way. He did it with a European record, the best score of 2025 for visually impaired athletes and the second best brand in history. The world record is held by Moroccan Fatima Ezzahra El Idrissi, who established it at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games (2h48:36).
In Valencia, Elena Congost He competed in a marathon again after last doing so on September 8, 2024. at the Paris Games. That day, she entered third with her guide Mia Carol Bruguera, who crossed the finish line after suffering cramps in the final meters in 3:00.48.
In these last meters, Congost let go of the rope for a second as a reflex so that his guide would not fall.what caused disqualification by the International Paralympic Committeewho strictly applied the rule despite the fact that this action did not influence the final result, since the next athlete, the Japanese Misato Michisita, arrived almost four minutes later.
The arguments of Para-Athletics and the International Paralympic Committee did not convince Elena Congost, who began a legal battle which will write its next chapter on March 23. Jean-Louis Dupontthe lawyer who changed European football with the Bosman affair.
“We have an audience in Paris that day but I don’t know what awaits me. At least it’s good news because it seems that something is moving,” the Catalan athlete told EFE, who admits to being “very happy” after the success obtained in Valencia.
“In the end, for one reason or another, I had never gone below three hours and I arrived with the thorn of what happened in Paris. There were doubts because it was also the first time I ran with Roger Sans as my guide. Even though we trained together We know that a marathon tests you.. “We knew how to resolve what happened in Paris and I’m happy with the work done and because after everything that happened I had to show the Paralympic Committee and everyone who helped me that we deserved to have a good time,” she said.
In Valencia, Elena Congostand created in official competition with Roger Sans as guidewho replaces Mia Carol, with whom she was in Paris. “After Paris, we had to renew the scholarship because the Committee informed me that they were giving it to me as if it were bronze and that’s when you have to choose a coach and a guide. With Mia, before Paris, I had already talked about changing and I had to choose another person. Roger, who has been my nutritionist all year since Paris and is a very good athleteI was going to do the marathon jump and the second he said yes,” he reveals.
“It was a success because, on the one hand, he has a lot of sporting qualities and, on the other hand, because on a human level we understand each other a lot, he has the same way of seeing discipline as me, and he also brings me nutrition,” he underlines.
Arriving in Valencia, performing at this level and, above all, continuing to demonstrate that he is part of the elite of Paralympic athletics has not been easy. Just seven months ago, in May 2025, he announced that he was suffering from a tumor.
“It was complicated at the beginning. It all started initially because I was having bad headaches and vomiting.. I didn’t associate it with anything. At one point I even thought I might be pregnant. We did a CT scan and an MRI and found out what was there. When I was able to solve this problem, I felt better and in the end I was able to train well,” he emphasizes.
“In summer They did a small procedure on me and it was easier than we thought. Since then, on a physical level, I have been better and on an emotional level, it has been hard. I’m a cold person in that sense, I know how to keep things to myself and when I go to train I know how to separate my personal self from the professional self and on the other hand, training gives me life, that’s what I’m passionate about and that’s it,” he said.
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