Emma Garcia
swimmer
Competing internationally, Emma has won plenty of honours including the European title.
- European Champion and six time European silver medallist
- Silver and bronze medallist at the World Championships
- Thirty World Cup medals
Her first medal was at the 2018 European Championships where at age 19 she took Bronze. She now has taken six Silvers and a Gold in Artistic Swimming, formerly known as Synchronised Swimming. She’s also taken a Silver at the European Games and a Bronze and Silver at the World Championships. Emma has around 30 medals from the World Cup.
When we first caught up with Emma in July 2024 she was competing in Hungary, taking Gold, and approaching her third veganniversary, having turned vegan in July 2021.
“I never could do that to any animal so I decided to not contribute to that by being vegan.”
“I did a slow transition” Emma says. “I started to get some information in 2019, with red meat and started to get rid of it. In one year I was eating only fish and not too often, only when going out. For 2021 I was only eating eggs, and by the middle of the year I went completely vegan.”
She was motivated by what she discovered about treatment of animals.
“I randomly started seeing some videos and thinking about the industry, and starting relating the animals with the food. Then I researched about all the industry and the impact and being conscious about what is behind our food and clothes especially. I felt it wasn’t me, I never could do that to any animal so I decided to not contribute to that by being vegan.”
Now she’s enthusiastically vegan, extending her practice to clothing and other products.
“I’m always searching for vegan brands to support them. When I’m traveling I always ask for vegan menus and options and I prefer not to eat than eat any animal products.”
The change to a fully vegan diet went excellently, and Emma’s fantastic competition history got even better.
“I’m so happy to be able to say that after my transition by being vegan, 2 years later I achieved one of my dreams, becoming silver medallist in a World Championship and one year after I became European champion.
“These two are the most special ones, but I have six more silver medals from Europeans, and a bronze medal form another world championship. I also have around 25-30 international medals form World Cups.”
What does she eat?
Emma is not a fussy eater.
“I eat everything really. I love all the fruits and the veggies, but for protein (which is the typical question of everyone) I love tofu and tempeh, some substitutes brands like Heura, and lots of legumes. I can’t live without hummus! It is one of my ‘safe foods’ when I go out!”
It helps her fuel a comprehensive training which includes diverse aspects such gym sessions for strength and speed, ballet, and flexibility. Most of her training is done in the pool, and she spends a lot of time working to be perfectly synchronised. She trains 6-8 hours per day, 6 days per week.
Over time, the sport has become increasingly demanding, incorporating more elaborate lifts, jumps, and aerobatic skills. The demands on breathing is unlike any other sport as competitors spend long periods underwater, sometimes inverted.
“Depending on the day we work more on the perfection of our movements, being synchronised perfectly and others sessions are harder to train physically and be able to do our best version when competing.”
She has no difficulty optimising her diet as a vegan world class competitor, and Emma attracted no concerns from team mates and coaches.
“Luckily they never saw it as an issue or questioned my decision. If I’m able to do my best and feel strong it doesn’t matter. We have nutritionists in our training center where I can ask for help if I needed too. But I have to say my teammates and coaches are always supporting me, and joking a little! We’re all love to have fun, so sometimes this is the topic, especially in competition meal times!”
Another love of Emma’s is fashion, and she’s aware that the industry is not always open to vegan principles.
“I’m studying fashion design, and here my heart breaks when I see all the luxury brands working with leathers. Hopefully we can start changing this. I’m 100% sure vegan will be the next luxury. We just need some research and laboratory work to find out the best way to do it vegan with the best quality.”
Emma clearly has achieved so much, but is keep to compete more and hit even higher standards. She also wants to be a good role model.
“My special wish was to show everyone that a vegan lifestyle is possible being a professional athlete, and achieving the best results by being your best version without animal suffering or killing for it to feed us. That’s where I found my other purpose of living, being able to help people who doesn’t know how to do the transition and make it with them.”
“I’m developing a program for it and I can’t be more exited, to help people and help animals. The other wish (that I’m working on) is that the mixed duet will finally be included in the Olympic Games.”