Isaquias Queiroz cheated death 3 times to become the best sprint canoeist in Brazil history

RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazilian sprint canoeist Isaquias Queiroz is a three-time world champion with more Pan-American gold medals than kidneys, and beat the odds in his rise towards the top of the sport.

Born in a small town called Ubaitaba in 1994, Queiroz cheated death for the first time when he was 3 years old. His mother, Dilma Queiroz, was working as a cleaning woman at the local bus station when her son complained about a bellyache. When the caregiver decided to heat water in the stove to make a tea for him, the little kid ended up burned with the hot water. He spent more than a month in the hospital, and only left because Dilma decided it was time to go back home -- against doctors’ advice.

Two years later, Queiroz was in trouble again. For whatever reason, Dilma heard that her son could be kidnapped by a random woman that could take him to a different town. He was kidnapped. The nightmare didn’t last long, though, and he was found moments later at a cocoa plantation. To top it off, at age 10, Queiroz decided to climb a tree to check on a dead snake, but fell over a rock and passed out. Back to the hospital, he was between life and death due to internal bleeding, and lost a kidney in the process. From that moment on, his nickname was “Kidneyless.”

“I never thought if I would have a complicated life because of that,” Queiroz tells SB Nation, looking back at the life threatening accident he suffered in 2004. “As soon as I could, I came back and had a normal life.”

Unlike most of the cities in Brazil, Ubaitaba’s main transportation is through canoes. The Contas river splits the city in two, and people usually need pay canoeists to take them to the other margin. Known as the city of the canoes, Ubaitaba gained a social project focused on bringing kids to sports. Queiroz, who saw his older brothers train there, decided to join it for the fun.

“I first met canoe sprint with my family,” he says. “My brothers Isac and Lucas started in the sport for fun, more as a chance to play as kids in a social project called Segundo Tempo (Second Time, in Portuguese). I was lucky to choose a sport that was always part of the culture of my city, and ended up becoming my profession.”

That kid was talented. In his first tournaments, Queiroz showed his coaches he had what it takes to compete at bigger leagues.

“Since the early days I realized that learned everything pretty fast,” he says, “so I dedicated more and more when I entered competitions and started defeating older athletes. I started competing in order to become a one-of-a-kind athlete that would be respected for his feats in Brazil and around the world.”

Queiroz became the greatest sprint canoeist in Brazil history, and one less kidney was never an issue.

“I kept training normally,” Queiroz says. “I had to always pay more attention about ingesting water, though. The things I went through as a child were no big deal. That’s what kids do.”

In 2013, the kid from Ubaitaba flew across the ocean to Duisburg, Germany. He returned home with a bronze medal at the C-1 1000m division, and the gold medal at C-1 500m. At the top of the world, he never looked back. As the Brazilian anthem played in Germany, Queiroz was so happy he couldn’t even think about his rough childhood and everything he went through in order to get there.

“That’s just part of my history as a messy kid,” he says.

That kid became an athlete with strong opinions. Queiroz, who once left the national team after being removed from the 2011 Pan-American Games, almost left the team once again after winning the world title in 2013. Unhappy with the lack of recognition from the confederation, Queiroz finally found peace. Good for him, and better for the country.

“I had some problems with a few people after winning my first world title,” he says. “I cooled down and kept training to continue earning my space in the canoe sprint in Brazil and around the world.”

On Monday, Queiroz started his run for more gold medals at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

“I feel emotional to represent my country in Rio,” said Queiroz, who qualified to the final at the 1000m individual. “It’s a dream come true for any athlete, especially for me since it’s my first Olympic Games with the chance of winning three medals in my home country.

“An Olympic medal represents everything for an athlete’s career because it’s a unique thing and not many athletes can win one. It’s the recognition for all the sacrifices that a high-level sport requires.”

Queiroz’s pre-competition ritual includes songs from his home state of Bahia, dancing and fun times (“At the same time, I can’t lose focus and concentration on what I have to do during the race,” he says). When the games begin, he’s all business.

He has the chance to become the first Brazilian to ever win three medals in one edition of the Olympic Games, but how would his life change after making history? Competing in a sport that the vast majority of his countrymen don’t care outside of the Olympics, he’s unsure of what the future might bring.

“Ever since I started winning national and international titles, I earned the right to win a monthly check from the government, and some money from the confederation’s main sponsor to help me pay the costs of the training,” Queiroz says. “A year before the Olympics, I got three separate one-year sponsorship deals. My biggest concern is post-Olympics, because nobody knows about the future of the investments in sports and athletes.”

Queiroz returns action Tuesday morning, competing for the gold medal. His busy week continues on Wednesday and Friday, when he looks for spots in two more finals.