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Authentic weightlifters have not only the physical strength to lift hundreds of kilos over his shoulders, but also-the emotional capability to get up from bed and off the floor. In other words, they know how to find the motivation to get up every day and overcome defeats. This has been a way of life for the low stature Para athlete Diego Quispe (19).
“At 17, I came back from the Brazil Junior Pan American Games without any medals and I wanted to quit powerlifting. I felt the trip was a waste of time and I was afraid of how the people would see me,” he recalls.
Finally, he decided to follow his mother’s advice: “I know you are a great athlete, don’t worry about what people will say, be your own critic and see what you are doing wrong. That is the only critique that really counts,” she said.
Gold Medal
Two years later, he won the gold in the Circuito Loterias Caixas, organized by the Brazilian Paralympic Committee. One morning after returning to Peru from Brazil, he woke up and realized that his arms were stretched, rigid, as if he had 90 kilos on him. “I was dreaming that I was lifting weights and it was really great to see —opposite to what normally happens— that reality was beyond my dreams: I had won a gold medal. Waking up like this was my motivation to keep improving,” mentions Diego.
Today, his goal is still the same: excel. His record: 102 kilos His challenge: 102. For Diego, record and challenge are strictly synonymous. “When I attended school, I said: damn why do they place me at the front...I didn’t know why,” he recalls.
His mother told him he was a short stature person with achondroplasia. “My mother was courageous, I think she wanted to tell me this sooner but I wouldn’t have understood it,” said Diego.
Opportunity to celebrate equality
In this sense, this Monday, December 3, the International Day for Persons with Disabilities, is an opportunity for everybody to share it and not be silent nor hide it. “This day should have always existed...” thinks Diego. “I think it is an opportunity to celebrate equality. It’s our day. Let’s celebrate it and enjoy it.”
Diego attended a conventional school. He played soccer with his classmates. As he got into sports, little by little, the word “normal” started to lose its meaning. His condition allowed him to really understand other people with impairments.
“The first time I competed in Junior Parapan American Games, I was naive to think that all of them were going to be of short stature,” he explains. I never thought to see athletes with amputated limbs, blind or in wheelchairs: When I arrived to the lodging, there was a buffet for Para athletes and I was shocked. I have never seen so many kinds of impairments.”
But, even before, the first time that Diego saw a short stature person, it was a disturbing experience. “As weird as it may be, I recall he felt embarrassed for seeing me. I felt, he thought he was the only short-stature person in the world,” he says. “I have seen people that never leave their home because they are afraid of being judged or told something that would make them feel bad, to be mocked. Through sports, we are overcoming those barriers.”
And this is just the impact that Parapan American Games will have on Peruvians. “Everything will be inclusion-based, there will be equality and respect. Everything will be adapted for impaired people. I was recently at the Athletes’ Village and I found it amazing. Bathrooms, lights, everything is adapted. I'd like to stay there right now and sleep over”, he jokes.
Motivation and Family
For the time being, he lives in Santa Anita with his family (his parents, grand-parents and his brother). The curious thing is that all his family members are left-handed. It is them who help him keep balance in his life. Emotionally and even nutritionally speaking: “If you do not eat fruit, you are not an athlete,” says her grandmother, who cooks meals for him every day. Diego is sociable, merry and chatty. As a kid, he was a bit hyperactive. “I loved running and running, my mom chased me all the time.”
And it was her mother who predicted that all this running would take to distant places: “One day, my mom looked at me and told me: Diego you will travel around the world.” Said and done. Up to now, Diego has traveled to France, Brazil, Colombia and he has been to six provinces in Peru. “Everything thanks to sports,” he says.
However, Lima 2019 is like a ticket to an emotional journey, a different one. It will be the first time my family will see me in a high-level competition. All my competitions have been abroad and I have always traveled alone. I am too happy and I cannot wait for the Parapan American Games to start."
Nevertheless, this is not the first time his family will see his performance as an athlete. He has competed before —with his brother Raul— in district and school football competitions. Raul does not have achondroplasia but they both have the same passion: sports. Besides being a chef, his brother is learning physical education. Sometimes he says to me: the fact that you practice sports gives me hope to achieve my goals if I keep training.”
Diego would be an inspiration for anyone... He is one of the few athletes that belongs to two delegations at the same time, the Para powerlifting and the short stature football team.
Solid Steps
In fact, one sport led to the other. One day, when he was playing football at the National Stadium, he was called for a meeting with the President of the National.
Paralympic Association. “Nobody did powerlifting in the short stature category, and they called me to start training. I did pull-ups in the gym. So, I accepted”.
Since then, Para powerlifting and football are an inseparable part of his life.
He spent his last day of school going a number of times from his neighborhood to VIDENA. He overcame all obstacles he found on the way, as he did in football. “Nobody can shadow me in the field, I'm the one making goal assistances, I am a creator of plays,” Diego says proudly. “When I was a kid, soccer was my passion, but right now it's both —soccer and Para power lifting— are hand in hand.”
But it is not all about muscles. Besides being a creator of plays, Diego is an image, shapes and colors creator: “I love drawing. Once, I drew myself in a football field in the Universitario de Deportes stadium, with a picture of Lolo Fernández”. In the future, he would like to study graphic design or adapted sports.
In the meantime, celebrations are coming; in a few days, he will celebrate his twentieth birthday in Colombia, representing Peru during the Para powerlifting American Cup, where we expect a new victory.
