Valley watch parties held for Shaine Casas' Olympic race

McALLEN, Texas (ValleyCentral) — The Rio Grande Valley showed up for Shaine Casas this afternoon as they watched the Olympian compete in the 2024 Sumer Games.

Casas is a McAllen native who attended McHi and graduated in 2018. His mother, Monica Epling said Casas learned to swim and compete in the Valley. 

The now 24-year-old athlete, began his collegiate career at Texas A&M. He later switched to UT Austin to compete professionally before qualifying for the Olympic team in June.

This afternoon the City of McAllen gathered at McHi to cheer on Casas as he competed in the semifinals.

Mark May, Director of Communications and Marketing for McAllen Independent School District, said he knew Casas personally because he was a trail blazer in the community from a young age.

"We did some stories on him because he was one of the best swimmers in the state at the time he was ion high school," May said. "He competed at the state level. He later competed for NCAA championships at Texas A&M and now he's gone to the very pinnacle of his sport which is the Olympic Games."

May said he believes this is the first time someone from McAllen makes it to the Olympic team.

"We are so happy for him," he said. " We are very proud of him. He's a wonderful role model for our kids and he grew up in the same neighborhood as our kids did and look what he did. He did it through hard work, he had a dream, he worked for it, he dealt with some adversity in missing the games three years ago and now look were he is so it's just a fantastic story."

May said he wants Casas to know the Valley is here to support him and happy that he is representing the 956.

Debbie Gonzalez, who played basketball with Casas' mom in McAllen said she is a huge fan and was happy to support the Olympian and his family.

"Making it to the big stage, it speaks to his character, it speaks to his resilience, it speaks to his determination because he did miss Tokyo and I think that probably gave him the drive the ganas the want to make it to Paris 2024 — and when he did it was just a surreal moment," Gonzalez said. "I cried."

The McAllen watch party was filled with people from the Valley as emotional and excited as Gonzalez. Their cheers echoed the McHi auditorium with chants of "Go Shaine Go!"

ValleyCentral spoke to many Valley residents and they all shared the same sentiment: that Shaine is an inspiration to locals and now to the world.

In Brownsville another watch party was held for Casas semifinal race.

Monica Rosales, who was sporting a "Brownsville Backs the Shaine" T-shirt to the watch party said as she walked into the Brownsville auditorium she noticed Casas holds so many of the records up on the board. Rosales said she was excited that the community came together to support the Valley native during this amazing feat.

"I want Shaine and his family to know that Brownsville is rooting for him just go do your best," she said.

Casas came in at fourth place with a time of 1:57:82 in the semifinals.

While he did not qualify for the finals, the Valley continues to show an outpour of support for the Olympian.