Building a legacy – MF Olympian has big dreams for local runners
MARBLE FALLS — Champion athlete, Olympian and Marble Falls High School graduate Leonel Manzano is ready for the next challenge.
He wants to find and cultivate other top-notch runners from the Highland Lakes to follow a career path like his own.
Leftover money raised by the community to help send Manzano’s family to the Summer 2008 Olympic games in Beijing to watch him compete in the 1,500-meter race has been donated to the Highland Lakes Track Club, the athlete revealed this past week.
“We put it toward the investment of young people,” he said. “I do hope with that small amount through the Marble Falls, Granite Shoals and Highland Lakes community we can get a small program going, so they can start small and dream big.”
Manzano plans to develop runners to equal his achievements in the sport from this area, he said. Then, they can move on to college and continue competing.
“I think it would be great to have them and give them some experiences I had as a collegian,” he said. “I don’t think it matters where they go to school.”
He really wants to see younger runners use track to give them a better life, like it has done for him.
Manzano, who was born in Mexico but moved to Granite Shoals with his family when he was very young, has enjoyed a track career marked by jaw-dropping records and being named a member of the 2008 U.S. Olympic team.
The 2004 MFHS graduate was the guest speaker at a Mustangs’ pep rally Sept. 18, and he spoke afterward about some of the new developments in his life.
In addition to the search for a future Olympian, Manzano revealed he has been coaching a cross-country B team at the University of Texas at Austin, his alma mater.
“I’m working with the UT cross-country and track team as a student assistant coach,” Manzano said. “When my coach resigned and went to Virginia, there wasn’t a coach at UT for some time. They needed a face and someone they could see every day or at least a couple of times a week.”
The first meet was at San Marcos about two weeks ago and the Longhorns came in first.
“I’m proud to say I’m undefeated as a coach,” he said. “Needless to say, when the day was over, I went home and thought, ‘Wow, that was a lot of fun.’”
One of the reasons Manzano is working with the Longhorns is because he wants to give back to the university that has done so much for him, he said.
During the pep rally, he also took time to congratulate the football team for its win against traditional rival Burnet High School Sept. 12.
“I’ve been waiting a long time for that,” he told them.
He also congratulated the high school boys cross-country team for winning the Hico Invitational Sept. 17, noting it was something the high school cross country teams of his day didn’t do.
“That’s a great accomplishment,” he said. “I felt a connection with them.”
Manzano returned from the Summer Olympics in Beijing in mid-August. “I’ve just been hanging out, getting back down to earth,” he said. “I’m really trying to rest my body and mind. It’s been two years since I really had a good rest.”
That’s because Manzano has been traveling the world to run in competitions.
He started in September 2006 by running for the Longhorns cross-country team, then joined the Texas indoor track team and followed that by running for the outdoor team.
The former Mustang was on the U.S. team that went to the World Track and Field Championships in Osaka, Japan, in late summer 2007.
When Manzano returned, he went right to work for the cross-country team, the track team and then headed to Eugene, Ore., for the U.S. Olympic Trials and eventually the Olympics in August.
“It’s been a long two years,” he said. “I really feel like I needed to rest my mind and body. It’s good for me to not do more than rest my body.”
He is taking a class at the University of Texas to finish up his degree in Spanish and business.
“It’s working out great,” he said.
But he’s not completely neglected his training.
“I’m running for myself one to three times a week,” he said.