#tbilisi
The Wedding / ქორწილი (1964) dir. by Mikheil Kobakhidze
Lara Lima is an amazing 18 year old paralympic weightlifter from Uberlândia, a city in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais.
Lara has been a wheelchair user for all her life as she was born with both spina bifida myelomeningocele and arthrogryposis. Myelomeningocele is a condition in which there grows a malformation in the spine during pregnancy. This consequentially causes damage to various parts of the spinal column, including the spinal cord. As Lara’s spinal cord was completely severed, she never had any feeling in her legs and has been completely paralyzed from her waist down her entire life. Besides that, her legs couldn’t move around freely during her time in the womb. This resulted in arthrogryposis, meaning that most of the joints in Lara’s legs have stood in a completely fixed and often bent position for all her life.
Lara always had a very active and athletic character. During her time in primary school she started trying out different sports to find out what suited her best. She especially liked swimming and wheelchair dancing and decided to join a dance group and an athletic club to bring her game to a higher level.
As a child, Lara loved to walk on her hands or move around the house using only the strength of her arms. She also didn’t shy away from climbing the stairs at her friends’ houses and was even surprisingly good at it.
Things like these didn’t go unnoticed by the people around her and at the age of 10, a friend suggested her that she should try out the sport of powerlifting. While she really liked swimming and dancing, she immediately knew that powerlifting would become her ultimate passion!
At CDDU, the athletic club where she joined the powerlifting team, Lara still holds the record of youngest weightlifter to compete in an official tournament!
Lara made her international debut in 2017 and now competes in tournaments all over the world. In 2019, she won a silver medal at the junior competition of the World Championships in Dubai, UAE. In May this year, she booked her biggest success as of now by winning gold in the junior competition and bronze in the adult competition of the World Championships in Tbilisi, Georgia.
Lara will also represent her country at the 2020 Paralympic Games which will start in just a few days!
Feel free to check out Lara’s Instagram page if you’d like to see more of her athletic endeavours!
Lara Lima♀️♥️ (@laralimahalter) • Instagram photos and videos