Rafael Botello
Spanish Paralympic athlete
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Rafael Botello Jiménez (born 23 February 1979)[1] is a Spanish wheelchair athlete specializing in long-distance events. He has represented Spain at the 2008 and the 2012 Summer Paralympics.
| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Rafael Botello Jiménez | |||||||||||||||||
Nickname | Rafa | |||||||||||||||||
| Nationality | Spanish | |||||||||||||||||
| Born | 23 February 1979 (age 47) | |||||||||||||||||
| Website | RafaBotello.com | |||||||||||||||||
| Sport | ||||||||||||||||||
| Country |  Spain | |||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Athletics | |||||||||||||||||
Event | Marathon | |||||||||||||||||
| Coached by | Javier Gutierrez | |||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Personal life
Botello was born in Vic, Barcelona on 23 February 1979 and since then still living in Manlleu (SPAIN).
His father was born in Melilla, a Spanish enclave in northern Africa,[2] and his mother was born in Arquillos, Jaen. He has one sister.
In 2002, he was in a bicycle accident that left him a paraplegic because of damage to the thoracic spinal nerve 11 and 12.[3] Prior to his accident he played a number of sports on the amateur level including football, kickboxing and athletics.[3]
Athletics
Botello is a T54 competitor.[4][5] In 2017, he was the Spanish national record holder in the 1500 meters, on the track, and 2011 in 5 km, 10 km and 2017 in marathon on the road.[4] He was the first Spanish wheelchair competitor to go sub-1:25 in the marathon and sub-10:15 in the 5,000 meters.[4]
In an average year of training and competition, he will cover a distance 8,500 kilometres (5,300 mi). At the same time, he will spend six days a week training.[3] Inside Spain, there is little funding for wheelchair marathon races and few money races and no professional category. Thus, he spends a lot of the time competing outside the country.
In order to get sponsorship, he had to personally approach and sell himself to potential sponsors.[3]
At the 2006 World Championships in Sweden, Botello won a gold medal in the 3,000 meter event.[6][7][8][9][10][11][12] He competed at the 2008 Summer Paralympics in the marathon where he finished seventh.[3] In 2010, he competed in the New York City Marathon, finishing in a time of 1:47.39, making him the first Spanish wheelchair competitor to finish the race.[3] The 2010 race was his fifth time competing in the race in which he placed in the top ten three times.[3] In 2011, he did the running part of the CAN Triathlon Mallorca, with Vicente Javier Torres Ramis doing the swimming leg and Joan Llaneras doing the cycling component.[4]
Botello competed at the 2012 Summer Paralympics.[5][13] He failed to make the finals in the 5,000 meters event.[5] He finished ninth in the marathon with a time of 1:33.05.[6][14][15] Melilla hosted a half marathon in November 2012 that he participated in. It was the first half marathon he competed in, and took place in his father's hometown.[2] In March 2013, he competed at the Los Angeles Marathon.[15] In March 2013, he participated in an international training camp for wheelchair athletes held in Costa Rica.[15]
