Maritza Arango Buitrago

Maritza Arango Buitrago is a middledistance parasport athlete from Colombia who competes mainly in middledistance events in the T11 category. She has represented Colombia at the 2012 Summer Paralympics and has won silver in the 800m at two consecutive IPC Athletics World Championships.

Arango Buitrago was born in the Antioquia district of Colombia in 1978 to Gustavo and Romelia. The third of eight children, she grew up on the outskirts of the city of Santa Marta, and was educated at Marco Fidel Suarez School. She became a nursery school teacher and in 2001 she gave birth to a son, Juan. In 2003 she was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa a degenerative eye disease. The illness progressed and over the following years she lost her sight. Initially she suffered from depression and spent two years where she did not want to leave her home. She broke her depression when she decided to take control of her disability and learn to live with it. Over the next two years she learnt braille and found work in a factory, packing hospital gloves. In her free time she enjoyed swimming, but a chance meeting with running coach Juan Chope Guillermo Rodriguez led her to take up athletics.

Source: Wikipedia