Ecuadorian Olympic swimmer Samantha Arévalo Salinas has been representing her country on the world stage for a decade. In 2017, she became the first Ecuadorian to win an open water swimming medal at a World Championships when she took silver in the 10km marathon. The previous year she had become the first Ecuadorian to compete in Olympic open water swimming. She has been voted Ecuador’s Female Swimmer of the Year twice, Ecuador’s Swimmer of the Year, and won the Best Female Swimmer Award at the 2014 South American Championships.

Born in Cuenca, in the highlands of Ecuador, Arévalo was encouraged to take up swimming by her triathlete brothers, Xavier and Victor Hugo. She initially trained as a pool swimmer but, by swimming in the nearby Upano River, she became a strong open water swimmer too. Her first major medal was won at the 2010 South American games, where she took bronze as part of the 400m relay team. She won gold in the open water event at the 2013 Bolivarian Games, a race so gruelling that many competitors dropped out with hypothermia. In 2014, she returned to the South American Games, taking silver in both 1500m freestyle and 3km team relay.

2017 saw Arévalo’s greatest success to date with her historic bronze medal at the World Aquatics Championships in Hungary. That same year, she was chosen as Ecuador’s flag bearer for the opening of the Bolivian Games. For the following two years, she showed her dedication to open water swimming by relocating to Italy to train.