Who Is Rubén Roldán Bustos? The AGT Star Who Stunned Simon Cowell
A 23-year-old parkour athlete from Spain who performs without his prosthetic leg has earned one of the most talked-about moments of America’s Got Talent Season 21.
Rubén Roldán Bustos delivered a one-legged parkour routine on the June 23 episode of AGT that ended with judge Simon Cowell pressing his Golden Buzzer, sending Bustos directly to the Live Shows.
The Simon Cowell Golden Buzzer Rubén Roldán moment has since circulated widely across social media, drawing attention not only for its athletic difficulty but for the story behind it: a childhood tractor accident, an amputation at age nine, and more than a decade spent rebuilding a career around the very sport that requires two working legs.
Here is everything confirmed about who he is, what happened on stage, and how he got there.
Rubén Roldán Bustos is a professional parkour athlete from Spain who has spent more than a decade competing and performing internationally, despite losing his left leg in childhood.
He is best known for adaptive parkour, performing complex jumps, vaults, and acrobatic transitions either with a prosthetic leg or, as seen on AGT, without one.
His AGT audition, broadcast during Episode 4 of Season 21’s Auditions round, combined elite athletic skill with what judges and viewers described as a deeply emotional personal narrative.
Rubén Roldán Age, Background, and Málaga RootsBustos is 23 years old and hails from Rincón de la Victoria, a coastal town near Málaga, Spain.
According to his biography on the Pho3nix Foundation website and prior reporting from Guinness World Records, he was an active child before his accident, interested in football, cycling, video games, and music, before parkour became the center of his life.
He has described parkour as more than a sport. “When I’m doing parkour, I disconnect from everything else,” he told Spanish newspaper SUR in a 2015 interview. “I aim to improve every day.”
Rubén Roldán AGT Audition 2026: The Jaw-Dropping PerformanceBustos walked onto the AGT stage at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium wearing long pants, appearing nervous, accompanied by a friend who translated for him throughout the audition.
When judges asked about his goals, his friend explained:
“His dream is to be here trying to inspire people and traveling around the world doing parkour.”
Bustos then tore off one pant leg, revealing a prosthetic limb, and proceeded to remove the prosthetic entirely, handing it to his friend before walking out a side door of the theater on one leg.
What followed was a roughly two-minute routine performed both outside and inside the auditorium, set to Connor Price and Killa’s song “Violet.” Bustos leapt from handrail to handrail outside the building, rode a bike to reach an elevated platform, and returned to the stage to perform gymnastic moves on parallel bars, climb a vertical structure, and execute a handstand, all without his prosthetic leg.
The entire audience and all four judges rose to their feet by the time the routine ended.
Simon Cowell’s Emotional Golden Buzzer ReactionJudge Sofía Vergara was the first to respond, calling the performance “amazing” and “spectacular” before asking Bustos about his leg.
“I had an accident when I was a child. I live in the countryside, so I have an accident with a tractor,” Bustos explained through his translator.
Cowell, visibly moved, responded:
“That was bloody fantastic. I have so much respect for your talent and your courage”
Before leaning across Vergara to press his Golden Buzzer, sending golden confetti raining over the stage.
It marked Cowell’s second and final Golden Buzzer of Season 21, guaranteeing Bustos a spot in the Live Shows without facing elimination in the standard Judge Cuts rounds. Bustos immediately leapt into his friend’s arms as the audience cheered.
The moment was widely covered by entertainment outlets, including NBC Insider, TV Insider, and Talent Recap, with several describing it as one of the standout Golden Buzzer moments of the season so far.
The emotional weight of the AGT audition stemmed largely from what Bustos has overcome to get there.
According to his friend and translator on stage, Bustos lives in a small village and never expected to find himself performing on a major international stage.
“He’s the hardest working person that I know,” his friend told the judges. “He’s so humble, but this competition means everything to him. He wants to win.”
Since his accident, Bustos has built an athletic career around adaptive parkour, eventually breaking multiple Guinness World Records in the discipline. His records include the highest running jump onto a platform, the farthest standing jump parkour dash, and the highest vertical leap with a running start, all set in adaptive parkour categories in November 2024.
Childhood Tractor Accident and Prosthetic Leg“Let no one say where your limits are,” Bustos said in comments published by Guinness World Records. “You set the limits, because no one knows your body better than yourself.”
Bustos lost his left leg in April 2011, at nine years old, following an accident involving a tractor near his hometown of Rincón de la Victoria.
The injury resulted in amputation, a life-altering event that Bustos has since credited as the starting point of his parkour career. Rather than stepping away from physical activity, he began training in parkour around 2014, drawing attention from the wider parkour community for his adaptive technique.
Bustos has used both a prosthetic leg and, in performances like his AGT audition, no prosthetic at all, relying entirely on balance, upper-body strength, and conditioning built over more than a decade of training.
Rubén Roldán’s Previous Talent Show AppearancesAGT 2026 is not Bustos’s first turn on a televised talent competition.
In 2016, he auditioned for the inaugural season of Spain’s Got Talent alongside fellow parkour performer Álex Segura, competing under the duo name Extreme Parkour.
In 2019, the pair auditioned together again, this time for the 13th season of Germany’s Das Supertalent. Bustos has also appeared on Italian television, breaking his first official Guinness World Record during an appearance on Lo Show dei Record in February 2024.
His AGT 2026 audition represents his most high-profile American television appearance to date and his most widely viewed performance internationally.
Spain’s Got Talent and International Parkour CareerBeyond competition television, Bustos has built a standing reputation within the global adaptive parkour and extreme sports community.
He is listed as a featured athlete in the Guinness World Records 2026 edition, recognized for his record-breaking achievements in adaptive parkour disciplines. He is also affiliated with the Pho3nix Foundation, an organization that supports athletes overcoming physical adversity.
Bustos has stated that his long-term goal is to travel internationally performing parkour and using his platform to encourage others facing similar physical challenges. “From here, I encourage anyone who has one leg or another difficulty,” he told Guinness World Records, “because everything is possible.”
With his Golden Buzzer secured, Bustos now advances directly to the Live Shows of America’s Got Talent Season 21, bypassing the Judge Cuts round entirely.
A. Simon Cowell awarded Rubén Roldán Bustos his Golden Buzzer during Episode 4 of America’s Got Talent Season 21 Auditions, sending him directly to the Live Shows.
Q. How did Rubén Roldán Bustos lose his leg?A. Bustos lost his left leg following a tractor accident in April 2011, when he was nine years old, near his hometown of Rincón de la Victoria in Málaga, Spain.
Q. Did Rubén Roldán Bustos perform with or without his prosthetic leg on AGT?A. He performed his entire AGT audition without his prosthetic leg, removing it on stage before completing a parkour routine using balance and upper-body strength alone.
Q. How old is Rubén Roldán Bustos?A. Rubén Roldán Bustos is 23 years old.
Q. Has Rubén Roldán Bustos appeared on other talent shows?A. Yes. He previously auditioned for Spain’s Got Talent in 2016 and Germany’s Das Supertalent in 2019, both alongside parkour partner Álex Segura.
Q. What records has Rubén Roldán Bustos broken?A. Bustos holds multiple Guinness World Records in adaptive parkour, including the farthest standing jump parkour dash and the highest vertical leap with a running start, both set in November 2024.
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Last Updated on June 30, 2026 by 247 News Around The World
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