• Sport Álex Roca makes history by finishing the Barcelona marathon in 5h.50:51 with a 76% physical disability

"I am nobody, I am a matao who runs and fights to fulfill a dream," Álex Roca described himself last night in El Hormiguero. No, of "matao" nothing. Álex Roca gave last night to Pablo Motos and all the viewers the best Anthill in the history of the program. And it all started in a tweet. No, it all started a long time ago, when Álex Roca wanted to give his life meaning: "I think we have come to this world to do things, to impact the world in general". Objective accomplished.

Just over a month ago, on April 14, a few days after Álex Roca went viral after being the first person in the world capable of finishing a marathon with a 76% disability. That day the athlete wrote a message on Twitter to El Hormiguero: "I would love you to invite me one day. Try to change this society little by little. It would be an honor." On Thursday, Pablo Motos announced that Monday was going to be a very special program, an Anthill that was going to go out of the ordinary, the first guest of the week was going to be Álex Roca.

Indeed, as Álex Roca said, he is a "matao", nothing to do with the great stars, politicians, athletes, actors, musicians, writers, etc. who come as guests to El Hormiguero. Álex Roca is much more, Álex Roca, in addition to being an example of overcoming, is a person to whom it is necessary to listen.

The decision of Pablo Motos to accept the challenge of Álex Roca, to take him to El Hormiguero, to give him visibility, to give him a voice, to allow Álex Roca to be heard in the most watched program on television was not a gift for Álex Roca or a privilege, the privilege was ours, that of those who saw him, The one of those who could enjoy and get excited, especially get excited, with the strength of a man who, being a baby, with only 6 months, was told, "you are going to die", who was told that he would never walk, that he would never run, who was harassed and mistreated at school.

Today, Álex Roca has been the first person with a 76% disability to finish a marathon, he has been the first guest at El Hormiguero not to be a big star to sit in El Hormiguero, he has been the man who without being able to speak has given the greatest lesson ever seen and heard in the program and, Without exaggeration, on television in the last decade. Look at the "matao". Of "matao", nothing.

Accompanied by his wife and translator, Mari Carme Maza, Álex Roca sat down in El Hormiguero to do what he has been doing since he was still a child one day he said, 'I'm not going to hide anymore': "I say I'm nobody and I only play sports and fight so that nobody laughs at anyone. The day I finished the marathon I wore yellow because it is the perfect representation of my evolution. As a child I cried, I locked myself up, I cried and I didn't want to go out because many people laughed at me and, now, those who laughed at me take pictures with me. And why do I wear yellow? Because it is the color that represents me and that's how I want to show the world, that we all fight to fulfill our dreams."

Álex Roca repeated it last night on many occasions: he just wants to be happy, he does everything because he only wants to be happy, he runs because he only wants to be happy. Of course, what he transmitted last night was that, nothing more and nothing less, to be happy. Can there be a greater goal in life? Being happy with the cards that have touched you, and Alex's were not the best. He has made them the best. And if you succeed, help others to be. Álex Roca was born without any disability. At six months "a problem" caused a physical paralysis of 76% that affects the left part of the body and speech. He created his own language, the language of Álex Roca, came out of the darkness, of so many years of bullying, and said "I'm going to be happy".

And since then he has been jumping obstacles. Last night, it was difficult not to be moved by each of his words, it was impossible to blink while listening to him in El Hormiguero, it was impossible not to think what a whore life is, but what a desire to live it. Álex Roca did not go to El Hormiguero to give pity, Álex Roca went to El Hormiguero to give a life lesson. There were only two moments in which the athlete fell apart and with him, probably, all the spectators, and even Pablo Motos himself. Look that it is difficult to break the armor of the presenter, because even that Álex Roca achieved.

The first was when Pablo Motos asked him how he had managed to finish the marathon with a foot so curved that the doctors told him that he would not be able to do 10 kilometers. "I thank this foot and those who told me that I was not going to walk, that I was not going to be able to drive, that I was notgoing to study and that I was not going to be able to be many things in this world. But thanks to this foot I have done the marathon, "explained the athlete.

"And what thoughts came to your mind during the marathon?" asked Pablo Motos. Alone, faced with this question, Álex Roca fell apart and with him everyone: "The fear of not being able to get it and to disappoint what I wanted to achieve myself. I remembered my grandfather, I'm sure he would have been at the finish line, but from the sky he was looking at me. It's been the biggest loss of my life." On the screen behind the image of his grandfather, who died 4 months ago, and in front of Alex Roca, excited, Pablo Motos, excited and Mari Carme Maza, excited. There are people who touch you just by being them. Alex Roca is one of those people.

It was she who showed what it means to be and have a person like Alex in life. He acknowledged that he receives a lot of criticism for being with him, that it bothers him to be asked why he is with someone like Alex, the answer is that Alex is the person we would all like to have next door. Álex Roca himself said that when he has a bad day, which, of course, he has, he turns to his friends, his wife, his family, asks for help and pulls forward again. Mari Carme Maza did not ask for help, but Alex arrived.

"When his magic touches you there is no turning back. Years ago I wanted to take my own life and when Alex appeared in my life appeared all the reasons to live my life and live it all with him. Since Alex entered my life I went from wanting to die to wanting to live. It's a force to live for." Living, life, over and over again, the whole interview, all the life.

The gift of Álex Roca was not to give visibility to people with special abilities, the gift of Álex Roca last night in El Hormiguero was to give meaning to life, to his own, to that of those around him. Read, without further ado: "I remember my childhood. She has been the best teacher to teach me that fighting is important on hard days. There is a word that I like a lot, resilience, the ability we have that when we are screwed we make a learning bridge to try again. And when I have a bad day I ask for help, I go with my friends and with my family who is my point of support. You realize that friends, family and who loves you are the ones who help you overcome it. You have to take that experience to make yourself strong. I am nobody without all those who are fighting to make a better world. I don't want anyone else to go through the bullying that I went through as a child. I am nobody, that I am a matao who runs and fights to fulfill a dream and that there are doctors who save lives, without my parents, without my grandparents, without all those who have touched my life I would not be who I am. "

But the reality, the real reality is that who is touching the lives of all of them, the one who really touched the lives of all the spectators, of Pablo Motos, of the audience of El Hormiguero, was him.

"What do you want to be when you grow up?" asked Álex Roca to Pablo Motos at the end of the interview. Ask yourself too. "Making El Hormiguero was my dream all my life. So, I'm in the middle of my dream," the presenter replied. "I have a lot of dreams, to make a movie, to be president of Barça... As a child I wanted to be a Barça striker and now I want to be happy, so let people dream of being happy." Álex Roca is or, at least, it is what he transmits.

I am left with his farewell, with the phrase "I hope to come once again to tell you that we are changing the world". It is people like Álex Roca, whether or not they get a marathon, whether or not they enter the Guinness Book of Records, who change the world. Alex is changing the world of many people, Alex changed his, Alex changed El Hormiguero...

  • The Anthill
  • Pablo Motos
  • Antenna 3

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