Marta García: “I will never regret my decision to go all in”

Words by Sheridan Wilbur. Photography by Lea Kurth. 

Marta García’s first target was her older sister’s brunette ponytail. “I’ve always looked up to Bárbara as my inspiration and followed her steps.” As early as three years old, García followed her sister Bárbara to their local run club in Palencia. “That’s when I realized I was a competitive monster,” the Spanish middle- and long-distance runner for On Athletics Club Europe (OAC Europe) says. “I want to win and beat everyone, even my sister. That's when I realized this was my place.” 

This being the track. At 26, García has stepped into her own around the oval, as a two-time Spanish record holder and soon-to represent Team Spain in the 5,000m at the Paris Olympics. She’s the two-time Spanish Indoor Champion (2021, 2024) and three-time Spanish outdoor champion (2022, 2023, 2024). The list goes on. 

Contrary to her athletic accolades, García has never been just about running. She loves music – the guitar, especially – and graduated from conservatory (music school) in 2016. “But I couldn't do both with the medicine degree,” she admits. García is also a doctor. The polymath decided to pause her music career for medical school. Making tough calls is a testament to becoming an adult, and living a life with fulfillment and self-possession.

“I chose running over music because it relaxes my mind. When I run, I feel free and not stressed,” García says. She says music is “too mental” so it would have been harder to pursue while studying medicine. 

García credits her bold outlook from her sister, who’s seven years older. “I was taking notes of what to do and not what to do. She’s helped me to develop myself in all topics.” And García still weaves music into her life as a professional runner. When she runs, she listens to anything from rap to pop (she loves Miley Cyrus) on her “Road to Paris” playlist. “It depends on the moment, if I'm nervous or nostalgic. But I embrace the mood.” 

Throughout medical school, García trained and raced, but she’s candid that running wasn’t her top priority. “My life at uni was medicine and just a couple hours for running.” That’s not to say she didn’t work hard, García just had competing demands. 

“It made me more balanced and healthy. Running saved me from not spending my whole day just studying at the library,” she says. “I would have spent all weekend studying if I didn’t have athletics. I always felt like I should have studied more. You never have enough knowledge at uni.” 

A typical day of medical school and training for García starts at 7 a.m. her alarm would go off. She’d be in the classroom by 8 a.m. Class all morning, then a late lunch around 3 p.m. “But that’s normal in Spain,” she clarifies. García would study until 7 p.m. before practice. Training lasted until 9:30 p.m. Dinner by 10 p.m. The earliest she’d go to bed was usually midnight. 

“I couldn't get a lot of sleep but that’s how I did it. Running calmed me down and I wanted to keep training with my friends and not be different. I liked how I was just another student, not an athlete or student-athlete.” 

Pursuing elite running and medical school at the same time sounds punishing, but for someone with so much drive, this freed García from doing too much in one area. It fed her too: she found joy in concentrated moments of attention in her pursuits. But when García graduated in 2022 she faced a crossroads: to become a full-time doctor or professional runner. 

“The decision to join OAC Europe and leave my family and give everything to running was tough,” she says. “But even if I didn't get the success I'm having now, I will never regret my decision to go all in. In sports, you have to be young, you have to take the train. If not, you lose it for the rest of your life.”

Towards the end of 2021, Marta had to commit to one path, deciding if she would pursue pro running or use her degree to practice medicine. “I was a super active kid, but my dream was to be a doctor,” she says honestly. The opportunity to run professionally was exciting, but she says it felt risky. “I was studying a lot and what you don’t use, you lose,” she says, about her medical knowledge. She’d also lose the chance to see how far – and fast – she’d go on the track. There was no way of knowing she’d become a Spanish record holder or Olympian less than a year later. García took a leap of faith – the only wrong choice was to never make a call at all. 

Since making that call,García has traded library shifts for altitude stints, training for up to six-weeks at a time in Dullstroom, South Africa and St. Moritz, Switzerland. “I’ve prioritized sleeping and eating well,” she says. “I couldn’t cook or make anything elaborate before.” Now she’s aware of what she needs. “I stressed my body to the limits with studying and training. Now, it's easier to train twice per day. I'm not as tired as before. It's an easier life for me, at the moment.” 

Marta describes the OAC as a family. For training camps, the family of 13 truly lives as one. “Sometimes it's hard when we have spent a lot of time together. We don't have our own lives at camp. You hardly ever have alone time. You always have someone nearby but we all have the same feelings. We are so deep in camps, only in our bubble.”  

“We have the same feelings so we understand each other. It's quite a healthy relationship with everyone. We support each other. That’s why the team works, and why we are doing it together. When someone does well and you train with them every day, it’s inspiring. It gives you extra energy. Because if it's working for them, it will work for me. We’re having flow and positive feedback. We’re growing together.” 

She describes herself as “very impatient” but credits her coach, Thomas Dreissigacker, for helping her peak at the right moments, and believe in the training. “My coach is super smart and I really trust him. He's scientific with data, which I like. I’m a scientific girl so that fits my mindset. He takes care of us and doesn’t just think about performance, he thinks about our personal life too. He looks at us in a holistic way – the right way.”

Dreissigacker’s high mileage program coupled with consistent gym work has helped keep her healthy and consistent on a day-to-day basis, while keeping her sights on Paris. “I’m not an athlete to say I don't care about European Championships though. That was super important. Last time, two years ago, I came 12th. This year I got the bronze medal.”

García neatly earned the 5,000m Olympic standard in January, running 14:46:37 at Boston University. There are only three spots per event for each country. Currently, she’s the only one in Spain with the standard. “So I'm pretty chill, which is good. But having higher stakes makes you better. At nationals I have to do it well, top two, top three.” Marta took Bronze at the European Championships, where she ran 14:44:04 and smashed her personal best.

“[European Championships] were as important as the Olympics to me. It was such a big opportunity to test myself in a big field and event. That gives me a lot of self confidence for the rest of the summer. It's almost time to go.” García has been committed to an ambitious vision for so long, but the Games are finally coming into her focus. “It's 2024. This is actually the most important year of our lives right now.”