Carrasco was born in
Cáceres in
Extremadura. He played
basketball for
Cáceres CB, making the first team by age 16 and playing in the second division. On 30 January 1985, he was riding a
dirt bike to
Malpartida de Cáceres to go fishing, when he was hit by an overtaking car, losing his left arm instantly. A nurse was driving by and made a
tourniquet from Carrasco's coat before driving him to hospital, fully conscious. The wound on his stump was left open for five days to clean debris. On 14 February, he was discharged. Carrasco was encouraged by disability organisations to continue playing basketball, but instead chose to dedicate himself to
para-athletics. He practiced the
100 metres and qualified for the
1988 Summer Paralympics in
Seoul and the
1992 Summer Paralympics in
Barcelona; he described the latter as a watershed for disability sport in his country. He missed the
1996 Summer Paralympics in
Atlanta due to what he described as an administrative decision, but competed at the
2000 Summer Paralympics in
Sydney. Following the 2000 Paralympics, Carrasco switched to
long-distance running and achieved a marathon time of 3 hours and 28 minutes. In 2009, the
paratriathlon was introduced. In October 2023, aged 58, he became the first paratriathlete to contest 100 international events. Carrasco was chosen for the
2024 Summer Paralympics as a coach, rather than an athlete. He said that the decision was politically motivated in order to allow a refugee to compete instead, and alleged that this athlete had rarely previously competed and had a poor personality. Carrasco retired in September 2024, having finished runner-up at the Spanish championship in
Valencia. ==Political career==