Maria Carolina Gomes Santiago

Maria Carolina Gomes Santiago (born 2 August 1985) is a Brazilian Paralympic swimmer who competes in international level events. She was a four-time Parapan American Games champion and a double World champion in freestyle swimming.[1][2]

Maria Santiago
Personal information
Full nameMaria Carolina Gomes Santiago
Nickname(s)Carol
Born (1985-08-02) 2 August 1985
Recife, Brazil
ResidenceSão Paulo, Brazil
Sport
Country Brazil
SportParalympic swimming
DisabilityMorning glory syndrome
Disability classS12
ClubGremio Nautico Uniao, Porto Alegre
Coached byLeonardo Tomasello Araujo

Santiago has a congenital eye condition called morning glory syndrome which is a defect in her optic nerve, she is partially sighted in her left eye but doesn't have peripheral vision in her right eye. She began swimming aged four and took part in able-bodied swimming competitions and open water swimming aged twelve. By the age of seventeen, she was completely blind for eight months due to accumulation of water in her retina and stopped swimming. She went back to swimming a decade later aged 27 and started to swim competitively again and in 2019 at the Caixa Open, she broke the Brazilian national record in the 50m freestyle that was set by Fabiana Sugimori at the 2004 Summer Paralympics in Athens.[3]

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.