Elizabeth Bravo’s life-changing year continues in Rio

It has been a huge year for Ecuador’s Elizabeth Bravo. While the elite triathlete has continued to climb in the World Triathlon Series and World Cup circuits, she also qualified for her second Olympic Games and once again gets to compete in front of the world as the only existing triathlete to ever race for her small South American country.

And while qualifying for an Olympics Games is a huge accomplishment all on its own, an accomplishment that is the by-product of all the hard work and energy that an athlete puts into their craft in order to get there, making it to Rio is not the only huge accomplishment that Bravo can be proud of this year.

In January, Bravo also gave birth to her first child. So not only is Bravo now able to add two-time Olympian to her resume, she gets to do so by adding it next to the title of “new mom” and proving that only the strength of an Olympian could experience pregnancy and still qualify for an Olympic Games in the same year.

“There is no word in the dictionary to explain all the emotions that a child makes you feel. Every move, every sound, his first smiles, every day is more amazing than the other. I am deeply in love with my baby!! My new role as a mother has made me stronger, more respectful, more patient, and gives me more motivation to reach my goals,” Bravo said of her new role as a mother.

Bravo grew up as a very active child. Encouraged by her parents to always participate in after-school activities, she became interested in sports. As a little girl, she also had a love of dance and therefore obtained a ballet degree from the Cuenca Conservatory. She also partook in swimming as a child.

She then picked up the sport of race walking. A sport that may seem a little unconventional to the rest of world, but is one of Ecuador’s most cherished athletics’ event. In 1996, during the Atlanta Olympic Games, a man by the name of Jefferson Perez won the gold medal in race walking, the only gold medal in an Olympic event that the country of Ecuador has ever received. And since Perez also hails from the same city where Bravo grew up, it is no surprise she competed in the nationally-coveted sport. When she became the runner-up for the South American Championships in race-walking, she caught the eye of the triathlon community. In 2003, because there was a lack of female triathletes in Ecuador, the president of the Ecuadorian National Triathlon Federation contacted Bravo and asked if she would …

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