Costa News Spain Breaking News | English News in Spain.
Sarah Almagro, the Banana Team and their team members are growing in strength.
Credit: SA Instagram
Sarah Almagro of Marbella has proven to be a dominant force in adaptive sports. She is the reigning Spanish ParaSurfing and European ParaSurfing champion, and the world runner up in the Prone 2 class.
In June, she won the Spanish ParaSurfing Championship Title at the Gran Canaria Surf Fest. Her best score ever was 9.67 in difficult conditions.
Representing Andalusia, Almagro credited her success to her “Banana Team”, coaches Aleb Barbosa and Nicolás Huercano, who assisted her in the water. She posted on social media that “we beat our best ever score” and thanked her team, the event staff, volunteers judges, other competitors, Canary Islands supporters, and fellow competitors.
Almagro has a growing collection of awards. In 2025 she became the first person to win the Hawaii Adaptive Surfing Championship, in Waikiki’s Queens Break.
Sarah Almagro, a Marbella woman with a superhuman determination
Almagro is a woman of superhuman determination. At age 18, Almagro was diagnosed with a potentially life-threatening infection of the meninges that put her in an induced coma lasting 10 days. In 2018, she was 18 years old when she suffered a life-threatening meningitis infection that left her in a 10-day induced coma.
Almagro, despite the nearly impossible challenges, found strength and comfort in adaptive surfing. Almagro has been surfing since she was five years old. She transitioned into the Prone 2 Category, which allows athletes to surf while lying on their boards. She won a silver in the Pantin Classic and the Spanish Championship, as well as a world medal of silver in California, just three years after she was discharged from hospital.
Almagro is more than just a surfer. She’s a strong advocate for social change. With over 176,000 Instagram subscribers (@sarah_almagro_vallejoShe has been a champion of causes such as updating Spain’s vaccine calendar to include meningitis vaccinations and improving the access to prosthetics. She says, “It is amazing to transform something negative into a positive by helping other people.”
A law student at the University of Málaga, Almagro balances her studies with training and delivers motivational talks to teens, promoting self-acceptance and body diversity. “This is me.” She declares, “Take it or leave it.”
Sarah Almagro continues to inspire people with disabilities and those who are able-bodied around the globe.
