Maritza Arango Buitrago

Maritza Arango Buitrago (born 19 March 1978) is a middle-distance para-sport athlete from Colombia who competes mainly in middle-distance events in the T11 category. She has represented Colombia at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London and has won silver in the 800m at two consecutive IPC Athletics World Championships. She won two bronze medals at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro.

Personal history Arango Buitrago was born in the Antioquia district of Colombia in 1978 to Gustavo and Romelia. The third of eight children, She became a nursery school teacher and in 1999 she gave birth to a son, Juan. In 2003, she was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa a degenerative eye disease. The illness progressed and over the following years she lost her sight. Initially she had depression and spent two years where she did not want to leave her home. In the final, despite running a season's best of 1:05.88, Arango Buitrago finished outside the medals in fourth place. In the 800m qualifiers she posted a time of 2:31.31 in the second heat to go through in first place setting an area record. She ran a slower time in the final, but it was still enough for her to finish second behind the Czech Republic's Miroslava Sedlackova to collect the silver medal. The only T11 athlete in the final, she finished fourth with a time of 5:07.47, the fastest runner with a guide. The 800m, running in a category T11 race where all the athletes were guided, she finished first in her heat with a time of 2:31.03. In the final Arango Buitrago ran 2:24.85 an area record to finish second behind Italy's Annalisa Minetti to take her second World Championship silver medal.