Juan José Florián Valencia (born 1982) is a Colombian paracyclist and former para swimmer. He was the national record holder in multiple S5 swimming events, and won the road race and time trial cycling events at the 2021 Colombian National Championships. Florián fought for both sides in the

Colombian conflict The Colombian conflict () began on May 27, 1964, and is a low-intensity asymmetric war between the government of Colombia, far-right paramilitary groups, crime syndicates and far-left guerrilla groups fighting each other to increase their i ...

Early life

Florián is from

Puerto Berrío Puerto Berrío is a municipality and town in the Colombian department of Antioquia. It is part of the Magdalena Medio Antioquia sub-region. Geography Puerto Berrío is located in a region of Antioquia known as the Middle Magdalena (near the Mag ...

Antioquia Antioquia is the Spanish form of Antioch. Antioquia may also refer to: * Antioquia Department Antioquia () is one of the 32 departments of Colombia, located in the central northwestern part of Colombia with a narrow section that borders th ...

, Colombia, and grew up in Lejanías,

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. At the age of 16, Florián was conscripted into the

Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People's Army (, FARC–EP or FARC) was a Marxist–Leninist Guerrilla warfare, guerrilla group involved in the continuing Colombian conflict starting in 1964. The FARC-EP was officially founded in ...

(FARC), after his brother had joined the

Colombian Government The Government of Colombia is a republic with separation of powers into executive, judicial and legislative branches. Its legislature has a congress, its judiciary has a supreme court, and its executive branch has a president. The citiz ...

forces. He was one of an estimated 6,000 child soldiers enlisted by FARC. He fled FARC a year later, and joined the Colombian government army in 2000, when he was of legal age to enlist. After leaving the army, his brother developed

schizophrenia Schizophrenia () is a mental disorder characterized variously by hallucinations (typically, Auditory hallucination#Schizophrenia, hearing voices), delusions, thought disorder, disorganized thinking and behavior, and Reduced affect display, f ...

. In 2011, Florián was injured by an explosive device left by FARC on his doorstep, disguised as a package. He lost both arms and part of his right leg. He was in a coma for 12 days, and now uses a prosthesic limb. In 2016, Florián started studying

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...

Sergio Arboleda University Sergio Arboleda University () is a university located in Bogotá, Colombia, with sectionals located in Barranquilla, Santa Marta, and Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with ...

. After three semesters, he postponed his course to focus on his sports career. He is nicknamed "Mochoman". Florián is a member of the , which tackles child and youth poverty.

Sports career

Florián started competing in

para swimming Para swimming is an adaptation of the sport of swimming (sport), swimming for athletes with disability, disabilities. Para swimmers compete at the Swimming at the Summer Paralympics, Summer Paralympic Games and at other sports competitions through ...

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. He competed in the S5 swimming events, and was national record holder in multiple events. In 2013, he won a medal in an event at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...

in the US, and his last swimming medal was at the 2015 Colombian Championships. In total, he won 12 gold medals at events. He gave up swimming when he began studying. In 2017, Florián started cycling on a specially adapted bike. He competes in C1 classification events, which is for riders with the most severe impairments. He uses his undamaged left leg to pedal the bike. Florián trains with Francisco Rodríguez Maldonado, who came third at the

1985 Vuelta a España The 40th Edition ''Vuelta a España'' (Tour of Spain), a long-distance bicycle stage race and one of the 3 grand tours, was held from 23 April to 12 May 1985. It consisted of 19 stages covering a total of 3,474 km. The race was won by Pedr ...

. Florián's first international cycling event was in Emmen, Netherlands in July 2017. He came 14th in the

time trial In many racing sports, an sportsperson, athlete (or occasionally a team of athletes) will compete in a time trial (TT) against the clock to secure the fastest time. The format of a time trial can vary, but usually follow a format where each athle ...

event, and 13th in the road race. In 2018, he competed in multiple Cycling World Cup events. In 2019, Florián was sponsored by

Movistar Movistar () is a major telecommunications provider owned by Telefónica, operating in Spain and Hispanic American countries. It is the largest provider of landline, broadband, Mobile telephony, mobile services, and pay television (Movistar Plus+ ...

Colombia. He was the second paracyclist to be sponsored by the company. In 2021, he funded his own travel to a World Cup event in Portugal. Florián was not selected for the delayed

2020 Summer Paralympics The , branded as the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games, were an international multi-sport event, 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 Inte ...

. In November 2021, he won the Colombian National Championships road race and time trial events. He won both events by almost two minutes. In August 2022, Florián cycled over two days during the Siempre Santander Challenge.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Florián, Juan Jose 1980s births Living people Colombian male swimmers Colombian male cyclists Colombian amputees Colombian military personnel People from Puerto Berrío Sportspeople from Antioquia Department 20th-century Colombian people Para-cyclists 21st-century Colombian sportsmen