Aruba Aruba ( , , ), officially the Country of Aruba ( nl, Land Aruba; pap, Pais Aruba) is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands physically located in the mid-south of the Caribbean Sea, about north of the Venezuela peninsula of ...

made its

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 ...

debut 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 de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

, sending one athlete to compete in a swimming event.Aruba at the Paralympics

International Paralympic Committee The International Paralympic Committee (IPC; german: Internationales Paralympisches Komitee) is an international non-profit organisation and the global governing body for the Paralympic Movement. The IPC organizes the Paralympic Games and fun ...

Aruba has never taken part in the

Winter Paralympic Games 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. ...

, and no Aruban athlete has won a Paralympic medal.

History

The small Caribbean island of Aruba did not have a Paralympic team until Aruban-born Shardea Arias de la Cru decided that there should be one. She had attended Colegio San Nicolas High School before she studied sport at the Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania. Shardea decided to gather the support required to establish a committee to put forward a Paralympic team. She worked for the Ministry of Tourism, Public Health and Sports and she made contact with their existing Olympic committee. She was able to establish a Paralympic committee. Aruba is part of the

Kingdom of the Netherlands , national_anthem = ) , image_map = Kingdom of the Netherlands (orthographic projection).svg , map_width = 250px , image_map2 = File:KonDerNed-10-10-10.png , map_caption2 = Map of the four constituent countries shown to scale , capital = ...

so she contacted the Dutch Paralympic committee who supported her work. Dutch athlete Marlou van Rhijn was a notable supporter of the initiative. They chose 22 year old to be their athlete. He had been born with spina bifida and they expected him to be classified as S4. Although he had not swam since a child they helped him train to race at 50 metres. He was classified as S9 which was a surprise as he would compete against more able swimmers. They had thought that he would be classified as having little use of both legs, but the S9 class was for weakness in one leg. He went to the

in Rio but because of an administrative mistake he missed his event by two minutes. On appeal he was allowed to compete at 100m but he was the only athlete in a wheelchair and he came last. The athlete from Aruba enjoyed strong support but he did not enjoy the experience. For the postponed

2020 Summer Paralympics The , branded as the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games, was an international multi-sport parasports event held from 24 August to 5 September 2021 in Tokyo, Japan. They were the 16th Summer Paralympic Games as organized by the International Paralym ...

they chose Elliott Loonstra, as their previous athlete had abandoned his sport. Loonstra was to compete at the new Paralympic event of taekwondo. Shardea Arias de la Cru worked with Loostra as she sees it as a way of raising awareness of disability issues. She tried applying for grants but the rewards were small. More money was raised from the public and this had the plus point of further assisting awareness. Loonstra did his training early in the morning and he did not understand how important the Paralympics were. He had not expected to be the only athlete from Aruba at the games and it was only at the opening ceremony that he realised that he was representing the 112,000 people of Aruba. Loonstra dyed his hair blue to carry the flag. He was placed 9th in his event.

Full results for Aruba at the Paralympics

History

Full results for Aruba at the Paralympics

References

See also