El Salvador El Salvador (; , meaning " The Saviour"), officially the Republic of El Salvador ( es, República de El Salvador), is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south b ...

first competed in the

Paralympic Games The Paralympic Games or Paralympics, also known as the ''Games of the Paralympiad'', is a periodic series of international multisport events involving athletes with a range of physical disabilities, including impaired muscle power and impaire ...

at the

2000 Summer Paralympics The 2000 Summer Paralympic Games or the XI Summer Paralympics were held in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, between 18 and 29 October. The Sydney Paralympics was last time that the Summer Paralympics which were organized by two different ...

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. It has participated in the

Summer Paralympic Games The Summer Paralympics also known as the Games of the Paralympiad, are an international multi-sport event where athletes with physical disabilities compete. This includes athletes with mobility disabilities, amputations, blindness, and cerebral ...

every four years since that time. El Salvador has never taken part in the

Winter Paralympics The Winter Paralympic Games is an international multi-sport event where athletes with physical disabilities compete in snow and ice sports. The event includes athletes with mobility impairments, amputations, blindness, and cerebral palsy. Th ...

, and until Tokyo 2020, no Salvadorian had won a Paralympic medal. In 2021,

Herbert Aceituno Herbert Aceituno (born 1 November 1985) is a Salvadoran Paralympic powerlifter of short stature. He is a bronze medalist at the 2020 Summer Paralympics held in Tokyo, Japan, a silver medalist at the 2021 World Para Powerlifting Championships held ...

became the first athlete to win a medal, earning bronze in powerlifting at the 59 kg category. Six athletes from El Salvador have represented their nation at the Paralympic Games, five in the sport category of athletics, which is largely track and field competitions, and one in powerlifting. Wheelchair sprinter Claudia Marina Palacios, the sole Salvadorean competitor in 2000, was the first to represent El Salvador at the Paralympics. Two athletes were sent to the Paralympics in

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

, and one each to the games in

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

, and

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

Medal tables

Medals by Summer Games

Summer Paralympic Games

2000 Sydney

El Salvador sent one athlete to the

, in their first appearance at the Paralympics. Wheelchair sprinter Claudia Marina Palacios competed in the women's 400 metre race in the T54 category, finishing fourth in her semifinal heat and not advancing to the final.

2004 Athens

Two athletes were sent to represent El Salvador at the

2004 Summer Paralympics ) , nations = 136 , athletes = 3,806 , events = 519 in 19 sports , opening = 17 September , closing = 28 September , opened_by = President Costis Stephanopoulos , cauldron = Georgios Toptsis , stadium = Olympic ...

in Athens, Greece. Marleny Chauez competed in the women's 200 metre race in the T54 category, finishing fifth in her heat and not advancing to the final.

William Rivas William is a masculine given name of Norman French origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conques ...

competed in the men's 100 metres (T54), finishing seventh in his first-round heat and not advancing to the semifinal round. Rivas qualified for the men's marathon (T54), but did not start the race.

2008 Beijing

El Salvador's sole representative at the

2008 Summer Paralympics The 2008 Summer Paralympic Games (), the 13th Summer Paralympic Games, took place in Beijing, China from September 6 to 17, 2008. As with the 2008 Summer Olympics, equestrian events were held in Hong Kong and sailing events in Qingdao. It was ...

in Beijing,

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

, was sprinter Zulma Cruz. She competed in the women's 100 metres (T13) and 200 metres (T13). She finished sixth in her first-round heats in both events and did not advance to the finals.

2012 London

The only Salvadorian athlete sent to represent his nation at the

2012 Summer Paralympics The 2012 Summer Paralympics, branded as the London 2012 Paralympic Games, were an international multi-sport parasports event held from 29 August to 9 September 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. They were the 14th Summer Paralympic Gam ...

in London, United Kingdom, was wheelchair sprinter

Luis Hector Morales Garcia Luis is a given name. It is the Spanish form of the originally Germanic name or . Other Iberian Romance languages have comparable forms: (with an accent mark on the i) in Portuguese and Galician, in Aragonese and Catalan, while is archai ...

. He competed in the men's 100 metres (T54), finishing seventh in his first-round heat and not advancing to the final round.

2016 Rio

In 2016, El Salvador once more sent one individual to represent their nation at the

2016 Summer Paralympics ) , nations = 159 , athletes = 4,342 , opening = 7 September , closing = 18 September , opened_by = President Michel Temer , cauldron = Clodoaldo Silva , events = 528 in 22 sports , stadium = Maracanã , sum ...

Rio Rio or Río is the Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, and Maltese word for "river". When spoken on its own, the word often means Rio de Janeiro, a major city in Brazil. Rio or Río may also refer to: Geography Brazil * Rio de Janeiro * Rio do Sul, a ...

, Brazil. This was

who competed in the powerlifting competition, men's - 72 KG. Herbert did not medal in the competition, ultimately won by Lei Liu of China.

2020 Tokyo

In 2021,

won the first ever medal for El Salvador at the Paralympics. He won the bronze medal in the powerlifting men's 59 kg event.

References

{{National sports teams of El Salvador