High Point, N.C. — Representing High Point University and the United States of America, Catarina Guimaraes from the women's track and field team competed at the 2023 Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile, during the week of November 21-25. Winning two medals in her events, she brought home bronze in the women's 100m race and silver in the women's long jump.

"It means everything," Guimaraes commented. "This is something I dreamed about as a kid. Whenever times get tough and you don't feel like training or you don't feel like coming out, I just think back to these moments and ask myself, 'Did I do the best that I could have done? Did I do everything that I could to get here,' and coming away with two medals and representing team USA really shows me that, 'Yes, every day that I didn't want to get out of bed, didn't want to train, or trained in the rain, or in the cold,' it all kind of just led up to this moment."
 

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When Guimaraes was born on February 19, 2004, in Livingston, N.J., she was born with Cerebral Palsy which is a condition marked by impaired muscles coordination. Doctors formally diagnosed her condition at 4 years old, labeling it as Cerebral Palsy Spastic Paralysis. She is affected in both of her legs and more recently in her left arm.
 
Guimaraes is the first-ever NCAA Division I athlete competing with Cerebral Palsy.
 
The condition slows things down, makes things tighter, and can make motor control more difficult, but it has not stopped her from doing anything she has set her mind to.
 
"I grew up never really seeing myself on the screen," Guimaraes said. "I didn't fit the CP mold cause a lot of people with CP can't walk and talk and function or even compete at this level or be at a Division I university.
 
"I feel like I'm doing it for all the little girls who didn't see themselves making it this far. I'm showing them that they do have a place and they can do it, they just have to find the right people to help them because no one can do it alone."
 
Growing Up With CP
 
For Guimaraes, she didn't really think much of her condition when she was a kid.
 
She tried to be like any other kid growing up, playing different sports, and participating in different activities. The only difference was, she spent a lot of her time visiting different doctors' offices for check-ups and physical therapy. A big part of her physical therapy at a young age was working through different casts on her feet to help bring them up since she walked on her toes a lot.
 
"During middle school, I realized that while all my peers were growing and developing physically, I was kind of stuck," she said. "I wasn't developing and I felt like I was getting slower and slower, and they were getting faster and faster.
 
"My favorite example of this was when I competed in a 50m shuttle run at school and I trained for weeks and weeks and I got dead last in the race out of the entire school. That's just part of CP, you're not going to be able to compete with people who don't have it because they're more physically developed, and their brains are sending the appropriate messages to their body to move."
 
Being the competitive person that she is, once she reached this roadblock of not developing like her peers, it took an emotional toll on her.
 
She spent a lot of time frustrated because she felt like she was working just as hard or harder than others, but the results were not showing up. Through this she found adaptive sports, where she discovered that she could compete on a fairer level and boost her confidence in training.
 
Learning to Live with CP
 
Guimaraes found a love for both soccer and track and field when she started competing in adaptive sports.
 
In 2019, she competed for Team USA at the Parapan American games in Peru and at the that time, was a part of the largest Parapan American games. She won two bronze medals in her first-ever international competition, one in the 400m and one in the long jump.
 
She later competed for Team USA in the first-ever 2022 Cerebral Palsy World Cup in Spain. In a field of five teams — Australia, United States, Spain, Netherlands and Japan — Team USA won and crowned Guimaraes the MVP.
 
After developing a love for both sports, she started to pinpoint her focus more towards track and field after discovering a larger support system within the sport.
 
"There was a lot more opportunity to grow and rise," Guimaraes said, "and be more supported by a staff and that's what ultimately made me chose track over soccer."
 
Soccer does not have an Olympic competition on the women's side and a goal of Guimaraes' was to compete in the Paralympics.
 
"I wanted to win a medal and the way to do that was to compete in track and field," she said.
 
Big Decision: Choosing High Point
 
The recruiting process was a challenge for Guimaraes.
 
Her marks did not impress many coaches at the Division I level and many coaches were hesitant to consider her for a spot on their track and field teams with her condition.
 
Guimaraes stated that coaches would say: "We don't know what we would do with her, we don't think it would be a good fit."
 
"Often times they would take an amputee over someone with cerebral palsy just because it's a neurological and it's not as visible," she added.

Since its neurological, people, including Guimaraes, do not always understand what is going on inside the body, which became a fear for a lot of coaches.
 
As determined and as fearless as Guimaraes was, she knew she wanted to train at the highest level, so she reached out to High Point's Shamoya Pruitt, who is the assistant coach for horizontal jumps, sprints, and hurdles.
 
"I said listen, 'I have cerebral palsy, but these are my goals, and this is what I want to do, would you be interested in taking me on as an athlete?' Guimaraes said. "Coach Pruitt had actually worked with a paralympic athlete, who I know and I'm friends with, Deja Young, so she had a little bit of experience in the para-world. Coach Pruitt is not afraid of anything, so she immediately said yes.
 
"The more I kept talking to Coach Pruitt, the more I loved the way it sounded and the way that the program was going to be run. She seemed like an amazing coach, and I was totally in love with the idea of coming here to High Point and training under her guidance and with this group of people."
 
A major factor for Guimaraes in the recruiting process was to have access to the resources and coaching that she needed in order to reach her goals of making an Olympic or para team.
 
"Our conversation went really well," Coach Pruitt stated in reference to Guimaraes' recruiting visit. "I felt that she was focused, and motivated and had the right mindset to take a walk-on roster spot in our program. I knew it would be a smooth process for both of us because she would get the right coaching and have access to the right facilities."
 
Guimaraes has taken pride in being a High Point Panther. She has loved training with her fellow teammates and is inspired by each and every one of them. They are an inclusive group that is very encouraging and accepting, pushing her to get better in every rep.
 
"Throughout the process," Coach Pruitt said, "she has grown as a young female and as an athlete pursuing to make a PanAm Olympic team.
 
"As for her representing High Point University and Team USA in the Pan American Games, it's a great honor for her to be able to put on the High Point jersey. She really enjoys being able to compete every time she wears it and she really gets excited about being able to compete with her teammates that she trains with every day and compete for a bigger goal."  
 
The HPU training prepped her for what she called a "dream come true" moment as she competed with Team USA.
 
"It's indescribable," Guimaraes said. "Wearing the flag on your chest feels incredible. It gives me a sense of 'Wow, I'm not only doing this for me but I'm doing this for everyone who has helped me, supported me, and believed in me."