El Salvador’s debut at the Winter Paralympics is powered by two athletes who survived gang shootings to ski, transforming a tropical nation with no snow into a historic contender through resilience, American mentorship, and sand-based training.
The story of David Chávez and Jonathan Arias is not just about sports—it’s a direct rebuttal to the hopelessness spawned by gang violence. Both men, now 27 and 28, were shot and paralyzed from the waist down as teenagers in El Salvador’s murderous 2010s, a time when Barrio 18 and MS-13 ruled the streets. Their journey from victims to Paralympic pioneers represents a profound shift for a nation where disability often means isolation, and winter sports are an impossible dream.
Surviving the Shootings: A Brutal Start
Chávez’s life changed on January 7, 2015, in San Salvador. While helping his aunt move furniture, gang members from Barrio 18 robbed them and demanded he join. When he refused and walked away, they shot him in the spine. “I couldn’t get up,” he said. “My legs just stopped moving.” He spent 22 days in the hospital, returning home unable to see a future.
Arias faced a similar fate earlier, in 2011, in the beach town of La Libertad. Caught in gang crossfire, he was shot and paralyzed. He spent a month in the hospital and a year bedridden at home, convinced he would never work or achieve anything. “My life is going to be spent bedridden forever until God takes me,” he recalled.
Finding Hope in Wheelchair Basketball
Rehab introduced both men to sports as a path forward. Chávez joined a youth wheelchair basketball team, where he met Arias. The two became friends and teammates in San Salvador, playing together for years. Basketball offered a temporary escape, but the pandemic pushed Arias back to La Libertad, where he sold shaved ice from his wheelchair to support his family. Chávez drove for Uber. Their athletic futures seemed limited until a chance encounter in June 2021.
The American Mentors: Rob Powers and Sean Colgan
That encounter was with Rob Powers, a Colorado-based Army veteran and former U.S. Ski Team coach. Powers, along with Sean Colgan (a 1980 U.S. Olympic rower), had founded ONETEAM El Salvador to support disabled athletes and underserved youth. Seeing Arias selling minutas on the side of the road sparked an idea: a surfing program for disabled Salvadorans. “A lightbulb went off,” Powers said. The Colgan Foundation Para Surf Training Center was born in Playa El Cocal, with Arias as its first member.
The surfing program thrived. After five months of training, Arias placed top 10 at the 2021 World Para Surfing Championship. Chávez joined, and the pair soared to world No. 5 and No. 8 rankings. But their dream hit a wall: para surfing was excluded from the 2028 Los Angeles Paralympics.
Switching to Skiing: A Fusion of Innovation
Enter Dan Cnossen, a former Navy SEAL and Paralympic skiing medalist who visited the training center in 2022. Despite language barriers, Cnossen connected with Arias and Chávez. “They found out he was a skier and were like, ‘That’s cool. Can we try that?’” Powers recalled. That question ignited a new mission.
Powers faced a monumental challenge: training para nordic skiers in a country with no snow. He modified equipment to build upper-body strength and devised a radical solution—training on the wet, thick sand of Playa El Cocal. “It’s brutal because your skis stick even more in the sand,” Arias said, describing sessions that made him feel “like I’m going to die.” But Powers called it “a lifesaver,” as it forced them to generate immense pole strike momentum, the key to skiing speed.
From Last Place to the Paralympic Stage
The pair’s first competition on snow, the 2023 Continental Cup in Norway, was a humbling experience. They finished last and second-to-last, their fingers stiff from the cold. But they persevered, traveling to Sweden, Argentina, and Germany for snow training. Chávez qualified directly for the Milan-Cortina 2026 Paralympics in November 2025 with a strong performance in Norway. Arias suffered a injury sidelining him for three months but earned a invitation via the Bipartite Commission, which supports athletes with extraordinary circumstances.
Why This Transcends Sports
El Salvador’s participation is historic—the nation’s first Winter Paralympics appearance. For a country synonymous with gang violence, this team embodies a different narrative. Their success hinges on a unique ecosystem: American expertise, local determination, and creative training that turns a beach into a ski course. They may not medal, but their presence challenges perceptions of what’s possible for disabled Salvadorans. “Future generations are going to see that,” Chávez said, “and it’s something that no one is going to erase.”
The ripple effects are already felt. The training center in Playa El Cocal, once a gang-plagued area, now serves as a beacon. Salvador “Chacha” Salguero, president of the El Salvador Snow and Ice Federation, calls their story “an inspiration by itself.” This is more than athletic achievement; it’s social transformation through sport, proving that even in the absence of snow, hope can take root and race forward.
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