A young boy from Nashua, New Hampshire, started running to improve his health and lose weight. With that goal in mind, 7-year-old Thomas Cantara took part in his first marathon in 2012. But after reaching mile 22, severe cramps forced him to stop. But still, Cantara chose to keep going.

Running helped him lose more than 80 pounds and opened up opportunities he never imagined. Fourteen years later, the athlete who once struggled to finish a marathon is still making history, most recently at the 2026 Special Olympics USA Games.

On June 25, Cantara delivered the performance of the competition in the men’s 10,000m final. Crossing the finish line in 34:26.49, the 35-year-old athlete beat the previous Games record (35:18.5) by over 52 seconds. The landmark had been in place since 2018, when Michigan’s Julian Borst set it in Kalamazoo.

In this race, however, New York’s John Massaro finished second in 51:11.12, over 16 minutes behind the winner. After the race, Cantara revealed, “I knew I could beat that 10K record, and just focus on staying consistent with the race, and I kept looking at the clock every time, and I knew I was on pace for it.”

Interestingly, the 10,000m victory was only one part of an extraordinary week. Two days earlier, on June 23, Cantara won gold in the men’s 1,500m final and set another Games record with a time of 4:30.48. Jesse Marino of Louisiana finished second in 4:49.69, while Jayden Labiche of Ohio claimed third in 4:52.43.

The following day, June 24, Cantara captured yet another gold medal in the men’s 5,000m. He crossed the line in 16:40.81, comfortably ahead of runner-up John Massaro of New York, who finished in 23:24.67.

By the end of the Games, Cantara had collected three gold medals. He said after the games, “I’m happy I did it, and I’m happy I pushed through in my training. It feels good when you go to a race, and you know you did exactly what you did in training, or better, and it just comes together. It’s a great feeling.” Yet the medals and records tell only part of Cantara’s story. Long before he became a champion, there was a moment when he nearly walked away from the sport altogether.

The failed marathon became a turning point in Thomas Cantara’s life

After failing to finish his first marathon, the 2012 Clarence DeMar Marathon in Keene, New Hampshire, Thomas Cantara was devastated. Severe cramps forced him to stop at mile 22, leaving him questioning whether he should continue running at all.

“I felt really depressed, and I was almost done with marathons at that time,” Cantara later recalled.

At his lowest point, it was his mother, Deborah, who convinced him not to give up. She reminded him that if he had already run 22 miles, he was capable of running all 26.2. Her words stayed with him. Just one month later, Cantara returned to the starting line at the Cape Cod Marathon. Though he barely slept before the competition, he managed to run his first marathon in less than 3:30. This breakthrough was the basis for everything that went on after.

For years, Cantara has been involved in marathons: the Gate City Striders, Special Olympics New Hampshire, and the T20 Para Athletics category with intellectual impairments. As the races went on, he was gaining in self-assurance, and his times were becoming faster. However, the most emotional moment of his journey came more than a decade later.

In 2023, Cantara ran the same course he’d seen his dreams slip away on the Clarence DeMar Marathon. This time, it was a very different ending. He had an outright win in 2:32:50. To Cantara, the win was more than just a championship. It was proof that he had come a long way from the runner who once could not make it to the finish and thought he’d never see the finish line again, let alone win the race.