Laura García-Caro just wanted to celebrate her success, but soon realized her mistake
A speed walker from Spain ended up missing out on a medal after she let her excitement get the better of her.
If you’ve just proven yourself to be one of the best at something, it’s natural that you’d want to celebrate that.
You might want to cheer, clap and throw your hands up in the air, and you’d be deserving to do so – provided you’ve actually earned it, that is.
Laura García-Caro was racing for Spain at the event. (Francois Nel/Getty Images for World Athletics)
It’s a key element to the celebration, and unfortunately something Spanish speed walker Laura García-Caro missed out on when she appeared at the European Athletics Championships in Rome earlier this year.
After 20 kilometers, García-Caro closed in on the finish line in third place behind Italian athletes, Antonella Palmisano and Valentina Traplett, who finished first and second respectively.
Seeing a bronze medal almost within reach, footage showed García-Caro grin and throw one fist into the air, consequently causing her to break the consistent movements that had been powering her through the race.
She stepped closer and closer to the finish line, but seemingly didn’t realize that Ukrainian competitor Lyudmila Olyanovsk was hot on her heels.
As García-Caro began to celebrate, Olyanovsk powered forwards and overtook her to snag third place, causing the Spanish athlete’s face to drop in horror.
imagine speed walking for hours and then losing at the end because you wanted to celebrate💀pic.twitter.com/bAvGkqvQaw
— juju 💰 (@ayeejuju) August 5, 2024
Viewers were left stunned at the scene, with one Twitter user commenting: “Imagine speed walking for hours and then losing at the end because you wanted to celebrate.”
Another wrote: “Always give 100% until it’s over. The look on her face when she realized she blew it.”
After the race came to an end, García-Caro admitted she was ‘quite disappointed’ at how things had turned out.
“The first part of the race I suffered, but [I did] recover and in the last 10 meters I thought I had it, but I didn’t,” she said as per CNN.
García-Caro was stunned to see herself being overtaken. (BBC)
“Now I have to assimilate [what happened] and heal my heart.”
García-Caro later addressed the situation on Instagram in a post in which she managed to look at the silver lining of the event.
“4th in Europe and ticket to my second Olympics,” she wrote. “Yes, sometimes people make mistakes at the least inappropriate time.
“Only staying with this is being unfair to me because it’s been hard to get here after a difficult time. And of this I am beyond proud.”
After earning herself a spot in this year’s Olympics, García-Caro completed the Women’s 20km Walk at Paris 2024 with a time of 1:28:12, earning her seventh place in the event.
