Iván Zarco

Iván Zarco Alvarez (born 8 February 1984)^[1] is a Honduran long-distance runner. In 2020, he competed in the men's race at the 2020 World Athletics Half Marathon Championships held in Gdynia, Poland.^[2] In the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games he represented Honduras in the marathon, and finished last, in the 76th place.^[3][4]

He represented Spain until the end of 2019 and, as of 1 January 2020, he represents Honduras in international competitions.^[1][5] In 2020, at the World Athletics Half Marathon Championships in Gdynia, he set a Honduran national record in half-marathon, finishing the race at 1:04.08.^[6][7] Zarco made headlines in March 2021, when he was scheduled to run a marathon in Dresden but instead gave his number to the former compatriot Camilo Santiago who ran as Zarco and finished in 2:17.46, which would have been a new record of Honduras. The switch was swiftly discovered and Santiago was disqualified for two years;^[8] the sanction was annulled in August 2021 by the Administrative Court.^[9] Zarco was not sanctioned initially, since no obvious motive was discovered in his actions.^[10] In 2023, both were suspended for six months.^[11] On May 22, 2022, Zarco became international again, competing in the Ibero-American Athletics Championships in Alicante (Spain). He placed ninth in the half marathon event with a time of 1:10:30.

On October 1, 2023, he participated in the Route World Championships in Riga, Latvia, in the half marathon event, finishing in 82nd position with a time of 1:09:07.

On March 30, 2024, he competed at the World Cross Country Championships in Belgrade, Serbia. He achieved a time of 35:01, and placed 93rd.