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Shot by gang members, these Paralympians are making history

David Chávez and Jonathan Arias will represent El Salvador in Para cross-country skiing this week at the Winter Games.
David Chávez, left, and Jonathan Arias of El Salvador were both victims of gang-related warfare at age 14 and left paralyzed from their waists down. They went on to become elite skiers in a country where most people have never seen snow.
David Chávez, left, and Jonathan Arias of El Salvador were both victims of gang-related warfare at age 14 and left paralyzed from their waists down. They went on to become elite skiers in a country where most people have never seen snow.Gretchen Powers
By Rich Schapiro and Nicole Acevedo
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David Chávez 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 the crossfire of a shootout between rival gangs, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down. Chávez was also 14 when he was shot and paralyzed during a robbery by gang members.

El Salvador during this time offered few opportunities for young people, even for those who had everything going for them. For two teens unable to use their legs, the future was especially bleak.

Fast forward to 2026. El Salvador is competing in the Winter Paralympics for the first time in history, and it’s Chávez, 27, and Arias, 28, who are blazing the trail — on two skis. They have qualified for the Para cross-country skiing event despite hailing from a nation that never sees snow.

How they got here is an extraordinary story of human resiliency and determination, of two men dedicating themselves to a completely unfamiliar sport and relying on innovative training to get them to the top. It wouldn’t have been possible were it not for a committed band of supporters, including two American sports figures, who rallied around them and built a training center for disabled athletes in a coastal town once infested with violence.

“The story behind these athletes, coming from the aftermath of gang violence — it’s an inspiration by itself,” said Salvador “Chacha” Salguero, president of the El Salvador Snow and Ice Federation. “And now they are making history.”

David Chávez takes a moment to focus during the 2026 World Cup competitions in Finsterau, Germany in January. After a gang shooting left him without the use of his legs, a stint in rehab opened his eyes to how he would be able to function using only his upper body.
David Chávez takes a moment to focus during the 2026 World Cup competitions in Finsterau, Germany in January. After a gang shooting left him without the use of his legs, a stint in rehab opened his eyes to how he would be able to function using only his upper body. Gretchen Powers

The incident that upended Chávez’s life took place in the capital city of San Salvador on a date seared into his brain: Jan. 7, 2015.

Chávez was helping his aunt move furniture into her home when, he said, members of Barrio 18 robbed them at gunpoint and demanded that he join the gang. He refused and started to walk away, but at least one of the gang members opened fire, striking him in the spine.

“I couldn’t get up,” he said. “My legs just stopped moving.”

He spent 22 days in the hospital before returning home, unable to see a future worth living.

”I couldn’t accept myself,” Chávez said. “I cried at anything I saw.”

But a stint in rehab opened his eyes to how he would be 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 had been shot in the beach town of La Libertad in 2011. It was a time when El Salvador’s two main gangs, Barrio18 and MS-13, ruled the streets and shootouts were common.

“I was there at the worst possible moment,” Arias said.

He spent nearly a month in the hospital and then a year recovering at home, rarely venturing outside. Grim thoughts consumed him.

“I’m not going to be able to work … I’m not going to be able to achieve anything … My life is going to be spent bedridden forever until God takes me.”

The possibility of playing sports, an idea presented to him during rehab, provided a glimmer of hope.

Arias moved to San Salvador and played on the basketball team with Chávez for a few years.

But then the pandemic hit and he returned to his hometown of La Libertad. To support his family, he sold shaved ice from his wheelchair, parked on the side of a dusty road.

It was there on a steamy day in June 2021 that he met an American named Rob Powers, an encounter that would send his life on an entirely different trajectory.

Three men stand behind two other men in wheelchairs outside a large white tent, with mountains behind them.
From top left, El Salvador Snow and Ice Federation president Salvador “Chacha” Salguero, ONETEAM El Salvador founder Sean Colgan, and head coach Rob Powers in Milan on Thursday with David Chávez and Jonathan Arias.via Rob Powers

‘A lightbulb went off’

Powers was a Colorado-based Army veteran who had coached the U.S. Ski Team for 14 years. Upon retiring from the ski team, he created a program that brought former Olympic athletes, combat veterans and others — who had experienced grievous injuries and other devastating setbacks — to remote U.S. military bases to share messages of hope and resiliency.

In 2010, a friend asked Powers if he would come to El Salvador to assist the country’s Olympic committee. The friend was Sean Colgan, a member of the 1980 U.S. Olympic rowing team who went on to launch a minerals trading company and then a foundation that supports sports programs, scientific research and a wide array of other causes around the world.

When he reached out to Powers, Colgan was coaching El Salvador’s Olympic rowing team.

“I dove in and fell in love with the country,” Powers said.

He and Colgan eventually created ONETEAM El Salvador, which provided support and training for first-responders, lifeguards and underserved youth.

Powers, who was helping the country’s surf federation, was looking at a property for ONETEAM El Salvador when he came upon Arias on the side of the road selling shaved ice treats, known as minutas, for “a buck a piece.”

“A lightbulb went off,” Powers said.

What if he built a program to train young, disabled Salvadorans to surf?

And thus El Salvador’s Paralympic surfing program was born, with Arias as its inaugural member.

An image of a man cross-country skiing during heavy snowfall in a specialized chair mounted to two skis.
Jonathan Arias on the course at the 2025 World Championships in Trondheim, Norway. Arias and Chávez have traveled outside their home country to get more experience on snow, training and competing in countries like Sweden, Argentina and Germany. Gretchen Powers

He had grown up near the beach and had surfed as a kid. After five months of training, Arias placed in the top 10 at the 2021 World Para Surfing Championship in Pismo Beach, California.

Chávez, meanwhile, had started working as an Uber driver after the pandemic hit. Would he be interested in joining the team?

It was his old friend Arias who convinced him. They grew into a formidable duo, with Arias earning a No. 5 world ranking and Chávez No. 8.

“That was the first sport we really focused on, and I improved a lot,” Arias said. “I was guided by the best surfers in the world.”

But then came bad news: Para surfing would not be included in the 2028 Paralympic Games in Los Angeles.

Not long after, an American named Dan Cnossen traveled to El Salvador to spend time at the one-of-a-kind Colgan Foundation Para Surf Training Center.

Cnossen was a former Navy SEAL who lost both his legs below the knee in 2009 when he stepped on a roadside bomb while serving in Afghanistan. He became a Paralympic phenom, winning seven medals in cross-country skiing and biathlon, a combination of skiing and riflery.

Cnossen developed a rapport with Arias and Chávez despite the language barrier.

“They found out he was a skier and were like, ‘That’s cool. Can we try that?’” Powers recalled. “That’s what lit the fuse.”

Powers constructed new exercise equipment and modified existing ones to help the budding Para skiers build the strength and conditioning they would need to perform at the highest level on actual snow, which they had no access to.

Back home, Arias’ family members were dumbfounded when he told them about his new sport.

“They didn’t believe it at all,” Arias recalled. “My aunt said to me: ‘How are you going to do it? What about your feet?’”

A diptych image of a man pulling himself through the sand on a beach using ski poles and lifting weights indoors.
David Chávez's training plan in El Salvador includes time spent pushing through the thick, wet sand of Playa El Cocal and strength training on special equipment modified by head coach Rob Powers. Gretchen Powers

‘I felt like I’m going to die’

Months later, the pair competed for the first time at the 2023 Continental Cup in Norway. The trip also marked their first time on snow. It came as little surprise when they finished last and second-to-last in the bitter cold conditions.

“Our fingers were so stiff, like if we kept going they were going to break,” Chavez said.

But they had endured the frigid temperatures and vowed to continue training.

Back in 95-degree El Salvador, Powers pushed a novel kind of training that he hoped would help take them to the next level.

The key to Para nordic skiing is the initial pole strikes into the snow, which produces speed and momentum.

“I was trying every trick I could possibly think of to get it in their head,” Powers said. “They’ve got to hit it hard.”

Then he took them to train on the beach right outside the center in Playa El Cocal, forcing them to generate momentum on thick, wet sand.

“Oh my God, it was a lifesaver,” Powers said.

Arias put it a bit differently: “I felt like I’m going to die.”

“It’s brutal because your skis stick even more in the sand, especially when it’s wet,” he added.

After months of training inside the center and outside on the beach, the two men made significant leaps. They traveled outside the country to get more experience on snow, training and competing in countries like Sweden, Argentina and Germany.

Chávez earned his ticket to the Paralympics last November after skiing fast enough at a competition in Norway to place him at the ranking necessary to directly qualify for the Winter Games in Milan.

Arias suffered a freak injury last November that sidelined him for three months. But just a few weeks ago, he was invited to compete at the Games by the Bipartite Commission, which allows the participation of top athletes who “may not have had the opportunity to qualify through other methods due to extraordinary circumstances” or other factors.

David Chávez during World Cup competitions in Finsterau, Germany in January. The key to Para nordic skiing is the initial pole strikes into the snow, which produces speed and momentum.
David Chávez during World Cup competitions in Finsterau, Germany in January. The key to Para nordic skiing is the initial pole strikes into the snow, which produces speed and momentum. Gretchen Powers

Both men said they feel immense pride to be representing their country in Italy. They hope it will inspire other disabled Salvadorans to follow in their footsteps.

“There might not be a medal, but having qualified…this is already history,” Chávez said.

“Future generations are going to see that,” he added, “and it’s something that no one is going to erase."