David Chavez and Jonathan Arias grew up in different parts of crime-ridden El Salvador in the 2010s, but they suffered the same brutal fate.
At age 14, Arias was caught in a shootout between rival gangs that left him paralyzed from the waist down. Chavez was 14 when he was shot and paralyzed during a robbery by gang members.
At this time El Salvador offered few opportunities to young people, even those who had everything going for them. For two teenagers who couldn’t use their legs, the future was particularly bleak.
Fast forward to 2026. Competing in the Winter Paralympics for the first time in El Salvador’s history, Chavez, 27, and Arias, 28, are blazing the trail on two skis. They have qualified for the para cross-country skiing event despite coming from a nation that has never seen snow.
How They Got Here is an extraordinary story of human resilience and determination, as two men dedicate themselves to a sport they are completely unfamiliar with and rely on innovative training to propel them to the top. It wouldn’t have been possible without a committed band of supporters, including two American sports figures, who rallied around him and built a training center for disabled athletes in a coastal town once plagued by violence.
“The story behind these athletes, coming from the aftermath of gang violence — is an inspiration in itself,” said Salvador “Chacha” Salguero, president of the El Salvador Snow and Ice Federation. “And now they’re making history.”
The event that rocked Chávez’s life took place in the capital, San Salvador, on a date that stuck in his brain: January 7, 2015.
Chavez was helping his aunt move furniture into her house when members of Barrio 18 robbed him at gunpoint and forced him to join the gang. He refused and started to walk away, but one of the gang members shot him, hitting him in the spine.
“I couldn’t get up,” he said. “My legs stopped moving.”
He spent 22 days in hospital before returning home, unable to see a future worth living for.
“I couldn’t accept myself,” Chavez said. “I cry at anything I see.”
But a stint in rehab opened his eyes to how he was able to function using only his upper body. He went on to join a youth wheelchair basketball team and met a player who became an instant friend: Jonathan Arias.
Arias was gunned down in the beach town of La Libertad in 2011. It was a time when Barrio 18 and MS-13, two of El Salvador’s main gangs, ruled the streets and shootouts were common.
“I was in a bad moment,” Arias said.
He spent about a month in the hospital and then a year recovering at home, rarely going out. Harsh thoughts consumed him.
“I will not be able to work … I will not be able to achieve anything … my life will be spent forever in bed until God takes me.”
The possibility of playing sports, an idea presented to him during rehabilitation, gave him a glimmer of hope.
Arias moved to San Salvador and played with Chavez on a basketball team for a few years.
But then the epidemic hit and he returned to his hometown of La Libertad. To support his family, he sold shave ice from his wheelchair, parked on the side of a dusty road.
On a steamy day in June 2021, he meets an American named Rob Powers, which sends his life on a completely different trajectory.
‘The light bulb went off’
Powers is an Army veteran from Colorado who coached the US Ski Team for 14 years. After retiring from the ski team, he created a program that brings former Olympic athletes, war veterans and others — who have suffered serious injuries and other devastating setbacks — to remote US military bases to share messages of hope and resilience.
In 2010, Powers was asked by a friend if he would come to El Salvador to help the country’s Olympic Committee. Friend Sean Colgan, a member of the 1980 US Olympic rowing team, went on to start a minerals trading company and later a foundation supporting a wide range of sports programs, scientific research and other causes around the world.
When he arrived at Powers, Colgan was coaching El Salvador’s Olympic rowing team.
“I loved the pigeon and the country,” Powers said.
He and Colgan eventually formed ONETEAM El Salvador, which provided support and training to first-responders, lifeguards and underserved youth.
Powers, who was helping the country’s surf federation, was looking after OneTeam El Salvador’s property, selling shaved ice treats called minutas to Arias on the side of the road for “a buck a piece.”
“A light bulb went off,” Powers said.
What if they built a program to train young, disabled Salvadorans to surf?
And so El Salvador’s Paralympic surfing program was born, with Arias as its inaugural member.
