Rubi Milagros Fernandez Vargas

Started: She took up the sport in 2017. (Yo Claudio Facebook page, 28 Aug 2018) Reason: She was encouraged to take up Para sport by friends at the Association of Short People in Peru. She first tried swimming before switching to badminton. "I heard about badminton for the first time at a meeting of the Association of Short People in Peru. We usually get together to get to know each other and talk about some things about our disability. At the beginning I chose swimming for health reasons, since it is also like a therapy because we suffer from leg pain. Other friends also invited me to practise badminton so I went to try it. I saw that it was an attractive sport and I wanted to continue practising it. After a while they told me to choose between swimming and badminton, and I chose badminton because I liked it a lot." (Yo Claudio Facebook page, 28 Aug 2018; badmintonpanam.org, 28 Mar 2023; badmintonperu.com, 01 Nov 2023) Ambition: To compete at the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris. (badmintonpanam.org, 28 Mar 2023) Awards: In 2023 she received the Sports Laurels of Peru Award [Grand Cross grade] from the Peruvian Sport Institute in recognition of her performance at the 2022 World Championships in Tokyo, Japan. (tvperu.gob.pe, 04 Jul 2023) She was named Para Athlete Revelation of the Year by the Peruvian Paralympic Committee in 2018. (Asociacion Nacional Paralimpica del Peru Facebook page, 09 Feb 2019)