Yunidis Castillo Castillo

Cuban athlete, considered a prominent figure in sports for people with disabilities, three-time Paralympic champion, Parapan American champion, and World Cup medalist. Member of the Cuban Association of Physically-Motor Disabled (ACLIFIM) and classified with disability T-46 (upper limb amputee). Glory of Cuban sports, known as "The Daughter of the Wind".

Born in Santiago de Cuba, Cuba, daughter of Laureano Castillo and Elena Castillo, she was born in the town of Boniato (Santiago de Cuba), municipality of Santiago de Cuba and resides in Building 19-A, Apt 10 Micro 2, Abel Santamaría Cuadrado District, Santiago de Cuba.

She began her primary education in 1992 at the Los Pinos Salado Popular Council school (Santiago de Cuba), later attending Antonio Robert school in the town of Boniato, in the municipality of Santiago de Cuba, in the province of the same name. She was the second disabled athlete in Cuba to enter a High Performance Sports Center, the ESPA Israel Reyes Zayas.

Due to her physical qualities and mental development, at age eight she began practicing Track and Field, with her first coach Jorge Alberto Gonce Ávila.

At age 10 she began practicing Judo. During one of her participations in the National School Games event in Holguín province, in a tragic accident she lost her left ear and right upper limb, which was amputated at mid-arm level, on April 11, 1998.

In 2000, at age thirteen, after a long recovery process she returned to sports as a disabled athlete again with coach Jorge Gonce Ávila and due to her athletic performance results she was admitted to the then Provincial ESPA of Santiago de Cuba.

In 2002, she participated in the II National Paralympics for disabled athletes, held in Santiago de Cuba, competing against the national team of Nigeria, where she was the only Cuban athlete to dominate events against foreign visitors, at only fifteen years of age.

She has participated in national events where she specializes in speed events, and also participated in subsequent Paralympics held from that same year onwards, contributing a large number of titles to the province where she was born and developed as a world-class athlete.

In 2003 she participated in her first international event, the Parapan American Championships in Santa Fe, Argentina, where she won gold medals in Long Jump and 200m events and was qualified for the next Paralympic Games. After concluding the Pan American event, she became part of the national team preparing for the 2004 Athens Paralympic Games.

Late in 2003, she intensified her training after having secured the Olympic ticket at the Panamerican Stadium, Havana, Cuba, the main training facility for major Cuban track and field athletes, this time under the guidance of two coaches Miriam Ferrer and Luis Bueno, specializing in speed and jumps respectively.

In 2004 she participated in the XX Athens Paralympic Games, Greece where she achieved a place among the top 12 in the world in the long jump specialty. In 2005 she participated for the first time in Brazil, in an invitational event for world-class athletes.

In 2006 she participated in the World Championship held in Holland, where she set two world records in the 100 and 200 meter events.

In 2007 she participated in the Rio de Janeiro Parapan American Games, Brazil, qualifying for the 2008 Beijing Paralympic Games. That year she became a double Olympic gold medalist, contributing almost 40% of the gold titles achieved by the Cuban delegation.

In 2009 she participated again in the invitational tournament, or as it was called from that year as the Grand Prix, in Brazil, repeating her performance in October 2010 in both cases with two gold medals in the 100 and 200 meter events.

On January 24, 2011, despite not being in peak physical condition, she set a record in the 200 meters (T 46) at the World Track and Field Championship for blind, visually impaired and physically-motor disabled held in Christchurch, New Zealand, falling just 14 hundredths of a second short of the world record of 24.72 seconds.[1] Almost immediately she set another record in the same championship in the 100 meters (T 46), stopping the clock at 12.20 seconds, which was another new championship record, coming very close to her own absolute record obtained in Beijing[2].

From March 13 to March 16, 2011 Seventh National Paralympics in Havana, she won Gold medals in 100 and 200 meters with 24.72 in 200m and 13.07 in 100m.

In April 2011, she won gold medals at the New Zealand World Championship in the 100m event with a time of 12.20 s, 200m with 24.86 s and for the first time competed in the 400 meters where she also achieved victory.

On May 27 she won two gold medals at the World Cup in Manchester, Great Britain, contributing the most points (eight points) to the Americas team, which finished in second place. She achieved a world record in her category in the 200m flat event, lowering her previous world record from Beijing 2008 by 24 hundredths of a second. This time she stopped the clock at 24.48 seconds. Hours earlier she had won Gold with a time of 12.19 seconds in 100 meters.

On Saturday, September 1, 2012 she won the gold medal in the 200 meters with a world record in the T46 category at the XIV London 2012 Paralympic Games, with a time of 24.45 seconds, one hundredth of a second less than she achieved at the IV Guadalajara 2011 Parapan American Games[3].

On September 4, 2012 she qualified for the 100 meters final setting a world, Pan American and national record in the T46 category at the XIV London 2012 Paralympic Games, with a time of 11.95 seconds[4].

On Wednesday, September 5, 2012 she contributed Cuba's seventh title by winning the gold medal in the 100 meters flat, T46 category, on the sixth day of the XIV London 2012 Paralympic Games, with a time of 12.01[5].

On September 8, she won her third gold medal, this last one in the 400 meters flat, T46 category, breaking the record with a time of 55.72 seconds at the XIV London 2012 Paralympic Games, becoming with this result the Cuban athlete with the most Paralympic titles.

2013
On February 18, 2013 with a time of 26.79 seconds, she won the gold medal in the 200 meters flat at the VIII National Paralympics held in Las Tunas.

On July 22 in Lyon, France, she contributed the third title for Cuba by winning with a time of 56.58 seconds in the 400 meters T46 (upper limb affected) during the third round of the World Track and Field Championship for athletes with disabilities affiliated with the International Paralympic Committee[6].

Awards and Recognition
Selected as Best Athlete of the Year in Cuba during 2005, 2007, 2008, 2010.
Recognition as an example of will and sacrifice of the Cuban woman, year 2009.
She was a delegate to the World Festival of Youth and Students in South Africa.
For the sports results obtained, she was decorated on November 19, 2012 with the Martyrs of Barbados Medal at the City Sports Coliseum[7].
She was chosen as Athlete of the Year 2012 in Cuba in Sports for People with Disabilities.