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Diego Quispe (20), one of the few athletes that plays two Para sports professionally (Para powerlifting and short stature football), found out he had achondroplasia at age six. “When I was in school, I wondered: Why do they always sit me in front? I didn’t understand.” At Lima 2019, however, the opposite will happen. This time, it will be all Peruvians who—regardless of their height—will be seated in the first row, cheering him on.
At 1.32 meters, the shortest Peruvian Para powerlifter competing at Lima 2019, Diego knows that real weightlifters not only have the ability to lift hundreds of kilos but, above all, they have the ability to lift themselves up every day and bounce back from their losses.
After winning the gold medal at the Circuito Loterias Caixa 2017 in Brazil, one morning he woke up and his arms were stiff; he had dreamt he was lifting weights. “It was really nice to realize that, unlike what usually happens, reality exceeded my dreams: I had a gold medal. Waking up like that motivated me to keep improving,” he explained.
Today, he is still dreaming big: he wants to win the gold at Lima 2019. Recently, he won the bronze medal at the Para powerlifting World Cup that was held in Lima for the first time, as a test event for the Lima 2019 Games.
“Everything will center around inclusion at the Parapan American Games. There will be equality and respect. I was recently at the Village and found it amazing. I wish I could sleep there today,” he joked; currently, he lives with his family (his parents, grandparents and brother) in Santa Anita.
Curious fact: they are all left-handed. They are the ones who help him keep his life balanced. Diego is friendly, chatty and laughs a lot. As a kid, he was a bit hyperactive. “I loved to run around, and my mom would chase me around everywhere.” And it was his mother who predicted that, a few years later, all this running would take him far: “She told me: ‘You will travel around the world.’” Said and done. As of today, Diego has traveled to France, Brazil, Colombia and he has already been to six provinces in Peru. “Everything thanks to sports,” he concluded.
ABOUT LIMA 2019
The Parapan American Games will gather 1890 Para athletes from 33 countries, participating in 17 sports and 18 disciplines. Competitions will take place from August 23 to September 1, 2019. Fourteen of these disciplines will be qualifiers for the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games.
Peru will have the largest delegation in its history at a Parapan American Games. There will be approximately 120 Para athletes, led by Dunia Felices (Para swimming), Pilar Jáuregui and Pedro Pablo de Vinatea (Para badminton), and Alejandra Callirgos (wheelchair basketball).
