Cuenca celebrates its hometown Olympic hero

A crowd cheers Cuenca Olympic gold medalist Daniel Pintado on Calle Simon Bolivar at Parque Calderon.

By Jeremiah Reardon, Photos by Andy Kim and Jeremiah Reardon

On Tuesday evening at 8 P.M., August 13, I watched our hometown assemble in the streets to offer a well-deserved homage to its recent hero, Olympian Daniel Pintado. Young and old stood with me on the sidewalk to watch his parade on Avenida Remigio Crespo. How I happened to be a part of the festivities began with a takeout stop at Chifa Asia, a popular food option for over my ten years in Cuenca.

The first people I saw along Remigio Crespo impressed me as political attendees at an outdoor event for the upcoming national elections. Once in the low-ceilinged restaurant I noticed my order taker stepping out on occasion under streetlights revealing the growing crowd. Then, a man with an Ecuadorian flag and a horn favored by soccer fans briefly stepped inside. “Is this a parade for the Olympic athletes?” I asked the worker who stood at her counter. “Yes,” she confirmed with a wide smile. I poked my head out the door to see family groups next to couples and singles, all looking westward.

Organized to honor Pintado’s speedwalking gold and mixed-race silver medals, police motorcycles, a fire company ambulance and double-decker buses wrapped in Ecuador’s colors, all headed in the direction of the city’s soccer stadium one block east. Recorded music over loudspeakers could be heard in the neighborhood for another couple of hours.

I felt proud the moment I took snapshots of the high bus with Daniel on board with Mayor Cristian Zamora and his trainer Andres Chocho. Tears came to my eyes as I witnessed this historic moment amongst Cuenca’s adoring faithful.

I learned from my competitive runner-friend Andy Kim that the parade originated at the airport. She joined it in El Centro before it turned in my direction and then, onward to the stadium. Andy arrived in El Centro to see many people there. “I felt so happy for them,” she confided to me later. In her closeup photo of the group crowded on top of a double-decker bus, Daniel, wearing eyeglasses, stands between the mayor (on his right) and his trainer (to his left).

Andy is grateful that in his La Voz del Tomebamba radio station interview, Coach Chocho stated that Cuenca needs a long, paved, continuous trail or track for training. Ha! She’d pay the monthly fee for it if we have one. “Parque de La Madre’s track is good,” she told me. “But, somehow, it’s too crowded. And I do hope that any trail that the city builds will be safe to run during the early morning before sunrise.”

Cuenca does have a paved trail. The city has paved the whole section of the old train rail from IESS Hospital Seguro to the Gapal neighborhood’s old train station close to Quinta Simon Bolivar. Andy runs on it often and finds the whole section very pleasant. “There are lots of crossings but most of them are roads to local residential areas,” she told me. “So, traffic is minimal. The whole section is about 2 miles long; Cuenca is small.”

Both Andy and I feel how special it is for Ecuador to have success in the Paris Olympics, earning the second most medals among South American countries after Brazil. With the country’s future investment in funding and resources for its premier athletes, we look forward to even more parades in Cuenca in honor of our hometown athletes.