An American in Lima

Don’t tell this woman you just cut her team’s food allowance by 80 percent!

My favorite Peruvian weightlifter – the mighty, mighty Cristina Cornejo – returned to Peru after participating in the Beijing Summer Olympics, with hopes of helping her fellow (sister?) weightlifters achieve new heights.

Now it turns out the Peruvian weightlifters can barely train due to [...]

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Great news for fans of María Portilla, the Andean-born marathon runner who represented Peru in the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games.

Maria Portilla (center) runs in the Baltimore Marathon / photo by Kristine Buls/Examiner

Portilla won the Baltimore Women’s Marathon this past Saturday, October 11, with a time just shy of the Peruvian national record.
The Baltimore Examiner [...]

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A recent article in El Comercio, summarized in English by reporter Israel Ruiz, exposes why Peru performs so abysmally in international sporting events like the Olympics.
Here’s Ruiz’s complete story published today in Living in Peru:
Peruvian sports are trapped in time, said reporters for El Comercio, explaining there were records in the Andean country that had not been [...]

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Sixto Barrera carries Peru’s flag during Opening Ceremonies, Beijing Summer Olympic Games, August 2008

Peruvian wrestler Sixto Barrera, who represented his country in the Beijing Summer Olympic Games of 2008, was honored on August 26 by the United Nations, reports RPP Noticias.
The wrestler was decorated by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) for setting an inspirational example [...]

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The Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics are officially over, the winners have scurried home with their medals, and the losing athletes are either chastised, pitied or forgotten by most of the world. No laurel wreath, no glory, the Olympic equation goes.

Not on this blog, however.

In the same spirit of honoring athletic excellence that inspired the first [...]

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Seventeen days ago I wrote a short post on “The Big Olympics and Little Peru,” about my shifting perspective, as an American expat in Lima, on the Olympic Games.
I thought that one post would be it on the Olympics.
Instead, as I dug for background material on Peru’s thirteen Olympians, I discovered that little was being [...]

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As I’m writing this post, Peru’s long-distance runner Constantino León is racing the last five kilometers of the Men’s Marathon (42.15 km), in Beijing’s National Stadium. Out of the 95 runners who began the race, only 82 remain, and León is 63rd at the 35-km mark.
The first-, second- and third-place winners have just crossed the [...]

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Peru’s original field of 13 Olympic contenders is now down to one athlete: marathon runner Constantino Leon.
Leon will compete Saturday, August 23, starting at 6:30 p.m. (Beijing time), in the Men’s Marathon. For fans in Peru, that translates to Sunday, August 24, starting at 7:30 a.m.
Thus far, no athletes representing Peru have won a medal in the [...]

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I’m very happy because I gave it my all, and everything went well. I am happy — very happy. The weather was good; happily I improved my time, and that’s very gratifying,” Portilla told RPP News on Sunday.

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The first week (August 10 - 16) of competition at the Beijing 2008 Olympics saw some encouraging efforts by Peruvian athletes but no medals. Here is a roundup of how Peru’s 13-member Olympic delegation has performed so far, along with buzz about the athletes from English-speaking media, bloggers and fans. (Plus blog reactions by Peru [...]

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The ultra-hip cevicheria Pescados Capitales, one of Lima’s finest seafood restaurants, plays on the Beijing Summer Olympics theme in its current “Pescados Olímpicos” (Olympic Sins) menu.

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I was feeling rather forlorn about Peru’s small Olympic delegation of 13 athletes. Then I stumbled upon Mashable’s “18 Smaller Olympic Countries to Root For.”

Sean P. Aune writes:

It’s easy to get wrapped up in all of the big name countries that go to the Olympics, such as the United States or Russia, but have you [...]

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This story continues the coverage began in Keeping up with Peru’s Olympians, posted August 11. 
BEST PLACE TO VIEW LIVE OLYMPICS COVERAGE
Log onto http://www.NBCOlympics.com for streaming videos and up-to-the-minute coverage of the events as they happen.  The site is in English and is easily navigated. Now I can stop kvetching about the poor Olympics coverage by Peruvian television stations.
WRESTLING [...]

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Peruvian wrestler Sixto Barrera trounced Lithuanian Valdemaras Venckaitis, ranked 3rd in the world, in the first qualifying rounds of Men’s Greco-Roman 74 k, in Beijing, on August 12.

Barrera then went against China’s Chang Yongxiang in the quarter finals and lost.
Chang Yongxiang advances to the finals with Georgia’s Manuchar Kvirkelia.
This will be China’s first-ever medal in wrestling. 
Here [...]

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