The name David Chávez will forever be linked to the history of Salvadoran sport. The cross-country skier has qualified for the Milano Cortina 2026 Paralympic Winter Games, becoming the first representative of El Salvador to compete at a Winter Games, Olympic or Paralympic. “I feel proud to represent El Salvador and to be the first athlete qualified for these Games,” he says. “This opens the door for other people with disabilities who want to take up this sport.”
Qualification was not just a sporting result. It was the culmination of an idea that for years seemed impossible. “If you had told me this one or two years ago, I would have thought it was crazy,” he admits. “Being Salvadoran and qualifying for the Paralympic Winter Games felt completely impossible.” When his place was confirmed, the emotion was immediate. “My mindset was to qualify and do my best. When it was confirmed, I felt like crying because the goal had been achieved.”
A shot that changed his life
On 7 January 2015, just weeks before his 15th birthday, his life changed forever. He was the victim of a robbery in Santo Tomás, in San Salvador, and was shot in the back, suffering a spinal cord injury. The result was the loss of mobility from the waist down. “The first challenge was accepting myself as a person with a disability,” he recalls. “I didn’t want to leave the house, I didn’t feel independent and that frustrated me.”
Rehabilitation lasted several months. At a specialised centre, he met people with even more severe injuries than his own. “That’s when I understood I could keep doing the same things, just with a bit more difficulty.” It was also where sport entered his life. First wheelchair basketball, then athletics, powerlifting and javelin. In 2017, he travelled to Brazil to compete at youth level. “From then on, I never left sport,” he says.
Going downhill on snow
After competing in Para surfing — where he ranked among the best in the world — an unexpected opportunity emerged: cross-country skiing. His coach, Rob Powers, believed he and his teammate could aim for the Paralympic Winter Games. His first encounter with snow came in Norway in 2023. “When they told me I would ski, I thought about mountains and going downhill,” he confesses. “Then I realised it was Nordic skiing, and it really caught my attention.”
Training in a country without snow required imagination. The solution was found at El Cocal beach on the Pacific coast of El Salvador. There, on hot sand, he began gliding in his sit-ski. “The sand sticks to the skis, it’s hard to move. It’s pure strength training,” he explains. “Sand is harder than snow.” The first sessions were extreme. “We felt incredibly heavy. The sun, the heat… but little by little your body adapts.” When they began competing abroad, rivals were surprised. “At first they looked at us like, what are these Salvadorans doing here? Now they come up to me, congratulate me and even ask what we’re doing to improve so much.”
More Salvadoran athletes
Today, his routine mirrors that of a high-performance athlete. He wakes up at six in the morning, trains between two and three hours a day and alternates machine sessions with strength work on sand. In the 10-kilometre event he has lowered his time to 38 minutes and climbed to 37th in the world rankings. “Competing against the best in the world changes your mindset; that’s when you understand what you’re made of,” he has said in interviews.
Yet whenever he speaks about Milano Cortina 2026, his thoughts return home. “I think there will be a lot of people supporting El Salvador. I’ll have my own crowd,” he says with a smile. His family never doubted him. “They’ve always supported me. They even joke and tell me to bring back a bit of snow.” Beyond results, his purpose is clear. “I want to train other people in El Salvador. If I can do it, they can too. I don’t want there to be just one or two winter athletes; there can be many more.” As he prepares to return to Norway before travelling on to Italy, he repeats the idea that defines his journey: “Disability has no limits.”
