From the verge of quitting hurdling, John Cabang is on the road to self-redemption: “Now I’m trying to show my value”

When John Cabang won the biggest title of his career at the 2025 Southeast Asian Games, it felt like a new chapter.

The Filipino hurdler had been plagued by fitness problems all season, dating back to the Olympic Games Paris 2024, where an adductor injury meant he had to pull out of the repechage round at the last minute.

Fast forward to the regional games, a fully fit Cabang stormed home to take the men’s 110m hurdles gold medal in 13.66 seconds, the same time he clocked in Paris. It would also have been a competition record in Thailand were it not for the failed zero control test.

That was out of his hands and did not dampen a monumental achievement. “It's OK, I will just do it in the next SEA Games,” Cabang told Olympics.com with a grin, while eyeing up the next Olympics at LA 2028. “I thought my redemption is going to be there in LA, but I feel like the SEA Games title was the first step.”

The 24-year-old’s journey has been shaped by a life in foster care. Starting in a home with other children, a Spanish family took care of the Madrid-born Filipino when he moved to San Sebastián aged nine. Amid the Spanish mannerisms is a man proud to represent his birth parents’ homeland.

“I'm still in touch with my mother,” he said. “She is the reason that I compete for the Philippines, because she was telling me to represent my blood inside of me. I feel like if my blood belongs to the Philippines, I should represent the Philippines. It makes me so happy to make my mom proud.”

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How John Cabang almost retired at 23: ‘I felt like I didn't belong’

Cabang has overcome his fair share of physical and figurative hurdles. Moving as a young child away from his parents forced him to mature, while athletics became a space to socialise and find his own path.

That pursuit of identity has always been pivotal. “I was raised in Spain, so I have the Spanish culture in me, but I feel more like I belong to the Philippines,” he explained, also referring to an upbringing in the Basque Country, an autonomous community within Spain: “It's like a culture clash in me - I also feel more Basque than Spanish.”

When it came to determining competitive allegiance, Cabang had no doubts in representing the Philippines. Such was the desire to represent his roots, he was the one sending emails to the national athletics association to join the team.

Within two years, Cabang was on the team and heading to Paris, bringing his same beaming grin to the gaze of the Eiffel Tower at the Opening Ceremony.

An Olympic debut will always be special, and the 24-year-old proudly dons a tattoo of the Olympic Rings on his inner arm. But there are also the bitter memories of pulling out injured from the repechage, which was followed by an Achilles issue and months of internal turmoil.

“I just lost my mind there because I went there with my whole heart and I couldn't even fight to race,” recalled Cabang. “I couldn't even put my feet in the blocks. It was very hard mentally, because I tried to get healthy for January [2025] then for March, and I couldn’t.

“That was so stressful. I couldn't even run properly, so that hurt me mentally. I was just about to quit athletics because it was so much pressure; it was too much pressure. From March to June [2025], I was in a fight. I felt like I didn't belong. I couldn't even run, so maybe it was destiny.”

Cabang returned to the track with the support of his coach, Martin de la Fuente, and the physios at Real Sociedad, the La Liga football club with whom the Filipino trains in their athletics section.

What brought Cabang back to hurdling?

It is the million-dollar question. Cabang was young enough to choose a different pathway, however painful that may have been. The 24-year-old studied robotics to follow his interests and is now undertaking a law degree. He also enjoys playing basketball yet even got injured when playing casually.

But leaving a lifelong passion is a monumental challenge, bringing as many doubts as would arise by debating a return. The Filipino was – and is – a hurdler, a part of his intriguing identity that no one can strip away.

“I've been doing this most of my life so that's an important thing,” said Cabang. “I feel like I was born for this. The part that kept me going was I had always done this. It's hard to leave something that has always been there. All the people were saying that they weren't expecting more of me now that I had gone to the Olympics.”

Cabang went away, reset and grew. His comeback was triumphant as he was crowned the Philippines’ national champion, and by the end of the 2025 season, was the Southeast Asian champion. What better vindication to recoup his dream could there be?

The Madrid native’s mindset was torn down and rebuilt following the injury layoff, forged in adversity and progressed by the pursuit to reach his ultimate level, whatever that may be.

“It wasn't my peak, and now it's not my peak,” Cabang explained. “The experience made me stronger, because before I felt like I was no one, and now when I'm on the start line, I feel like I’m the best, even if I'm racing the world champion.

“I trust in the work we're doing; my coach and I are perfectionists. I feel that I can be part of the elite, so now I'm trying to show my value. The biggest part of me is the work I have done for my dreams. I'm capable of going to the semi-finals and fighting to be in that Olympic final.”

Cabang is clear about his intentions to race at LA28 and what follows in his career. There is plenty to come from the big dreamer; as an avid reader of fantasy books, he is now the author of his own destiny against the hurdles.

If his career was a book, what would this chapter be called? Cabang responded with a word used heavily after his SEA Games gold: “’The redemption’… yeah, it would be ‘redemption’.” He could not be clearer about what is to come, pondering before labelling the next chapter: “Going to the sky.”

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