This Friday, Kimberly García gave us a great joy again. The Peruvian walker won the 35Km walk, which is her second world title in the discipline, after the one achieved last Friday in the 20Km. The national became a great place in the history of Peruvian sport.
And this story was formed since she was 5 years old, when she followed in the footsteps of her cousin Minerva to venture into race walking. And she didn’t stop doing it until she saw her dreams come true. But what makes Kimberly have the conditions to become the best in the world?
Sudor Magazine recalled the book Long Breath, published in 2019, where Kimberly García’s physical conditions are discussed to become competitive, at that time, in high performance. Her preparation in Huancayo served a lot for the oxygenation of her body.
In that book it is said that his body mass is 18.96 kilograms per square meter, when the average is just over 20kg. That is to say, she has a lighter body, which allows her better conditions for the practice of the mark.
Kimberly García trained with Pedro Cañizares in 1998 and then from 2004 continuously until last year. She was also under the command of Professor Pablo Callupe, who was in charge of training the athlete in the early years until the return of the Cuban coach.
HIGH PERFOMANCE
We were able to talk with her former coach Pedro Cañizares, who summarizes Kimberly’s strengths in two things from a physical point of view: “He has a suitable height for walking. He is in the average of the athletes of the world“, tells us. Kimi is 1.64m tall. The Chinese Shijie Qieyang measures 1.60 -silver and bronze in this World Cup-. The last Olympic champion Antonella Palmisano measures 1.66.
The height allows Kimberly to step with the necessary distance to advance in the march. According to Cañizares, Kimi’s average step is 1.15 meters, thanks to her height and to the fact that her center of gravity is correct. This is the place where she concentrates all forces and helps maintain the balance of the body.
Although she considers that for a walking athlete it is better to have a low center of gravity, because one foot must always be on the ground, this would not help in the steps. “Lower is better, but shorties find the stride short. They don’t give the length. While Kimi takes a step, the short ones have to take a step and a half”, tells us the Cuban trainer who works with the marching team in Huancayo.
“Kimi has the ideal height, the correct center of gravity and an ideal step of 1.15 meters”, states her former coach, who congratulates what Kimberly García has done in the World Championships in Athletics with the two golds obtained, in the 20km and 35km walk. A milestone for Peruvian sport.
Meanwhile, on the mental side, it stands out that Kimberly always aimed to win. She left her dental studies in 2012 to dedicate herself fully to walking. “React positively to the demand. She has the ups and downs of her, but she reacts well”, Cañizares tells us.
Thus, Kimberly knew how to get up from the frustration generated by not finishing the 20Km test in Tokyo 2020. “It gave me depression. I was sick for two weeks and I didn’t even want to leave my room, “she told El Comercio. However, she knew how to get ahead.
“She is a very quiet girl, very concentrated, focused on her goals. She has reached where she is and continues to advance, ”says Pedro Cañizares.
Thus, Kimberly begins the path in a great way towards her Olympic dream. After Tokyo 2020, where she was unable to complete the test, she has achieved bronze in the World Race Walking Championships in Oman (20km) last March and double gold at the World Championships in Athletics in Oregon.