During the deafblind awareness month, we at Dicapta decided to put a spotlight on some outstanding figures of the deafblind community.

On this occasion, we want to talk about Cody Colchado Jr, an incredible powerlifter. Mr. Colchado is a member of the United States Association of Blind Athletes (USABA) and the Powerlifting Hall of Fame. He has a combined total of 33 world championships in powerlifting for both able body and disabled divisions and holds numerous world records. 

Mr. Colchado was born with a 75-85% hearing loss, which wasn't diagnosed until second grade. When he was 17 years old, he was in an accident in his high school football practice, resulting in his vision loss. After this incident, he only had 5 degrees of vision left. 

Colchado started to power lift after the accident, and in this activity, he found a passion and a way to move forward. Among some of his accomplishments, he won his first nationals and was the first  American to win the World's Strongest Man in 2015 in the standing division and the first American to win the World's Strongest Man among people with disabilities.

As he recalls in an interview for the Feeling Through YouTube Channel, his disability has given him interesting challenges and exciting opportunities for his career. "And one of the neat things about this World's Strongest Man in Iceland, it was in the middle of the one-week-long Viking festival. And there in Iceland, there are 23 hours of daylight. Well, everybody had a hard time going to sleep. And I said, what is the problem? I don't have a problem. I just turned off my hearing aid and then went to bed, but everybody else kept hearing all the music and all of the commotion."

But Mr. Colchado is not only a great athlete but also a student of the human physique. He has a baccalaureate degree in Adapted Physical Education and a Master of Science in Kinesiology to prove so. 

Colchado is an inspirational figure that proves that nothing can stop a strong will. He has said: "Powerlifting built my self-esteem, built my character. If, you know, there's another phrase that I go by, adversity builds character.".

We would like to thank the U.S. Association of Blind Athletes for the images provided for this article.