Kimberly García

Gabriela Kimberly García León (born 19 October 1993) is a female racewalker from Peru. She won gold medals in the 20 kilometres walk and 35 km walk at the 2022 World Athletics Championships, becoming the first ever Peruvian world medallist and the first Latin American to earn two titles at the same World Athletics Championships.

Career As a 12-year-old García won the 5 kilometres race walk at the Peruvian Race Walking Under-18 Championships and Peruvian U18 Championships. Three years later, in 2009, she took victory in the 10 km walk U20 event of the Peruvian Race Walking Championships. She was seventh at the 2010 Youth Olympic Games held in Singapore (5000 m walk). García placed 14th in the event at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

In 2019, García won the silver medal in the event at the Pan American Games staged in Lima.

At the World Athletics Championships held in Eugene, Oregon in July, García first won 20 km walk in a national record, becoming the first ever medallist from Peru in championships history and ending longer than 10 years Chinese dominance in the event. Seven days later, she added second title for the 35 km walk, improving her own South American record and becoming the first woman to earn two racewalking titles at one global championships. García also became the first Latin American to win two gold medals at the same World Athletics Championships. In November, she was shortlisted for the World Athletics Female Athlete of the Year award.

2023–present: 35 km walk world record Kimberly got her 2023 campaign off to a strong start on 25 March, setting a 35 km walk world record with a time of 2:37:44 at the Dudinska 50. She made clear that 2022 was no flash in the pan and sliced two seconds off the previous fastest mark for the distance. It was the first world record in the event after it became a standard championship discipline in 2022 and 2:38:00 was set as the standard. In August, Kimberly won the silver medal in the 35 km athletic walk at the World Championships in Budapest.

Personal bests

International competitions