Christian Alberto LOPEZ BOBADILLA

As a boy, Christian López was active in karate, soccer, and boxing, but he eventually settled into weightlifting as his sport of choice. In 2001, at the age of 17, he became a Pan American Youth Champion, but a wrist injury four years nearly derailed his career. He recovered in time to finish fifth in the heavyweight division of the 2007 Pan American Games and went on to compete in that category at the 2008 Summer Olympics, where he finished 16th among 19 lifters. His greatest international success came at the 2010 Central American and Caribbean Games, where he won the snatch portion of the super-heavyweight competition and earned bronze overall in the tournament. Two years later he was back at the Olympics where, as a super-heavyweight, he improved slightly to 15th of 19 participants. He was working towards a degree in accounting, and still competing in international tournaments, when he died of a severe bout of pneumonia, just over a year after the London Games.