Gabriel "Gaby" Macchi (born 2 October 1975) is a

Paralympic The Paralympic Games or Paralympics is a periodic series of international multisport events involving athletes with a range of disabilities. There are Winter and Summer Paralympic Games, which since the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Kore ...

athlete An athlete is most commonly a person who competes in one or more sports involving physical strength, speed, power, or endurance. Sometimes, the word "athlete" is used to refer specifically to sport of athletics competitors, i.e. including track ...

from Portugal competing mainly in category T12 long-distance events. Macchi has competed in the

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and

2016 Summer Paralympics The 2016 Summer Paralympics (), the 15th Summer Paralympic Games, were a major international multi-sport event for disabled sports, athletes with disabilities governed by the International Paralympic Committee, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, f ...

, and has won medals at both European and World IPC championships.

Career history

Macchi was born in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

in 1975. He began running at the age of 14 to accompany his father who was a keen marathon competitor. As a youth he was diagnosed with juvenile

glaucoma Glaucoma is a group of eye diseases that can lead to damage of the optic nerve. The optic nerve transmits visual information from the eye to the brain. Glaucoma may cause vision loss if left untreated. It has been called the "silent thief of ...

and his eyesight progressively worsened into his adulthood. Macchi began competing in long-distance racing in 2006 and due to his visual impairment was classified as a T12 disability athlete. He impressed enough at country level to be immediately accepted to represent Portugal at the

2006 IPC Athletics World Championships The 2006 IPC Athletics World Championships was held in Assen, Netherlands from 2–9 September 2006. It was the fourth edition of the international athletics competition for athletes with a disability organised by the International Paralympic Co ...

in Assen. There he entered both the 5,000m and 10,000m races, finishing seventh in both. In 2008 he was again selected for the Portuguese team, this time to travel to Beijing to compete in the

Summer Paralympics The Summer Paralympics, also known as the Games of the Paralympiad, are an international multi-sport event where athletes with physical disabilities compete. This includes athletes with mobility disabilities, amputations, blindness, and cerebr ...

. In Beijing he entered both the 10,000m which he failed to complete, and the joint T11/12 marathon, in which he finished 14th. In 2011 Macchi travelled to New Zealand to take part in the 2011 IPC Athletics World Championship at Christchurch. There he entered the marathon but he was unable to complete the course. Macchi had better success the following year in the

2012 IPC Athletics European Championships The 2012 IPC Athletics European Championships was a track and field competition for athletes with a disability open to International Paralympic Committee (IPC) affiliated countries within Europe. It was held in Stadskanaal, Netherlands and last ...

where he came third in the 5,000m, his first major international medal. 2012 also saw Macchi enter his second Paralympic Games, one of three Portuguese competitors in the T12 marathon. Macchi recorded a season's best of 2:40:13 to finish sixth. In his third World Championships, held in Lyon in 2013, he again challenged for the T12 marathon. On this occasion he finished third to take the bronze medal.

Notes

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Macchi, Gabriel 1975 births Living people Athletes from Buenos Aires Argentine emigrants to Portugal Paralympic athletes for Portugal Athletes (track and field) at the 2008 Summer Paralympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2012 Summer Paralympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2016 Summer Paralympics Portuguese male long-distance runners Portuguese male marathon runners Visually impaired marathon runners Visually impaired long-distance runners Paralympic marathon runners Paralympic long-distance runners Medalists at the World Para Athletics European Championships Portuguese blind people