Paris 2024: For Para powerlifter Perez, sport is a door to “many, many dreams”
Mexico's four-time Paralympic champion Amalia Perez is ready to compete at Paris 2024, her seventh Games 16 Aug 2024
With her contagious laugh and bountiful energy, Amalia Perez has been a fixture in the world of Para powerlifting for more than three decades. She has not missed a single podium at the Paralympic Games since the women's category debuted at Sydney 2000, and has collected gold in the past four events.
A symbol of Para sports in her native Mexico, Perez has also emerged as a passionate advocate for women’s powerlifting.
As she gets ready for her seventh Paralympic Games at Paris 2024, she shows confidence in her performance, even as a new generation of competitors begins to challenge her position.
“I feel very calm and very grateful. I've been working very hard and I feel I’m among the top 10 in the world,” she said.
“But I know that the girls are already reaching me and, far from bothering me, I like it a lot because I know that I was a promoter of this discipline,” she continued. “I encourage all the generations that come after me.”
Not that it will be easy to dethrone Perez.
In May at the World Cup 2024 in Acapulco, Mexico, she clinched gold by lifting 129 kilograms in the women's up to 67kg weight category, ahead of her younger compatriot Fatima Castellanos Rodriguez.
To achieve such prowess in Para sports, Perez underscores the importance of “las ganas”, a Spanish expression for unwavering determination. “You need the attitude and the discipline,” she emphasised.
“And you are obviously not alone. You have to have a multi-professional team. When you work as a team, the result always has to be positive,” said Perez, who is trained by her husband, Jose Enrique Alvarado Paiz.
3x Americas Champion 🥇🥇🥇
— #ParaPowerlifting (@Powerlifting) July 9, 2022
4x Paralympic Champion 🥇🥇🥇🥇
4x World Champion 🥇🥇🥇🥇
Amalia Perez Vazquez 🇲🇽 is a winner.
WATCH her best lift of 132kg as she captures another title #StLouis2022 #ParaPowerlifting @LoganUniversity @Paralympics pic.twitter.com/16i7NJSPic
Opening a door
Perez says she has faced challenges from an early age, but in her case, she was almost not even given a chance to try.
Her mother was six months pregnant when she had an accident, and Perez was born prematurely. The doctor, seeing the baby’s condition and that the mother already had kids, offered an unorthodox suggestion.
“He told my mother she was not going to have time to take care of me, that I was probably going to die in a year at the latest. He suggested an injection of air into my heart so I wouldn't exist,” she said.
“My mother clung to me and well, here I am.”
Perez, who uses a wheelchair, was diagnosed with a condition affecting joint movement and muscle strength. “They didn’t know what my disability was. There was not much science around it back then. My mother told me that I was born with my legs crossed.”
At six years old, Perez started swimming as part of her rehabilitation and since then sports have always been part of her life.
"Para sports have changed my life in many ways. I feel more autonomous, more self-sufficient. Rather than weakening me, they empower me,” she said.
“It helps me aspire to more challenges and more goals. It makes me feel committed to the sport, my generation, and my country.”
"Sport is a door, an alternative. It gives you a lot and it is something for you to start taking care of your health, get better nutrition, better concentration, discipline, values, and, above all, dreams, many dreams."
As a little girl, she loved watching the Olympic Games on TV with her brothers and parents, particularly admiring gymnast Nadia Comăneci, the talented Romanian who changed gymnastics as she scored the first perfect 10 at Montreal 1976.
“Mexico and the world waited the most to see Nadia. I saw how she competed. I would say, ‘I want to be like Nadia one day’.”
Spotlight in the City of Light
Her Para powerlifting journey started in 1991 at the National Games in Guadalajara, Mexico. When women’s powerlifting was introduced at the Sydney 2000 Paralympic Games, she was there to grab silver in the up to 52kg weight category.
At Athens 2004 she repeated silver, an experience she cherished as one of her favorite Paralympic memories. Perez had just become a mother and did not expect to go so well.
“It was a motivation to have my daughter. Above all, it also demonstrates that you do not need to retire from a sport or give up when you have the great opportunity of being a mother,” she said.
Another proud moment came at Rio 2016, the first Paralympic Games in South America, where the crowds were loud and vibrant. “People went crazy when I competed, and it made me even crazier because I got super nervous, very tense,” she said.
“I'm used to being cheered and applauded, but Rio was really loud in the stadium. I couldn't concentrate because of so much energy. So, being able to beat Nigeria, a major competitor, and bring gold to my country, is one of the things I feel most proud of.”
LATAM support>>>
— #ParaPowerlifting (@Powerlifting) July 25, 2024
🇲🇽Amalia Pérez talks about the incredible support from Latin American fans that propelled her to 🥇 at Rio 2016.#ParaPowerlifting @Paralympics @COPAME pic.twitter.com/RTr9tMXL1b
Perez eagerly anticipates the return of spectators in Paris 2024 after missing them at Tokyo 2020, where she clinched gold in the women's 61kg category. She also won gold at Beijing 2008, with a record-breaking lift of 128kg, and London 2012, lifting 135kg.
“I want people to watch us, to cheer us, to fill us with a lot of adrenaline and emotion,” she said. “Above all, we are grateful that the public looks at us and knows about our potential. We are eager to showcase our abilities.”
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