Rio Olympics 2016: Brazil’s Isaquias Queiroz tastes Olympic glory after a horrific childhood
ISAQUIAS QUEIROZ won bronze in the men's 200m canoe sprint today his second medal of the games after winning silver in the men's single 1000m canoe race.
What a story alone for many athletes to win one Olympic medal is a dream that is never fulfilled however for Queiroz it was a dream that never seemed possible.
As he jubilantly celebrated both victories you have to wonder if much of it was a release that his past can finally be put behind him.
At the age of three he was burnt as a pot of boiling water that ravaged his body to the point that doctors told his mother to expect the worst.
At the age of five the Olympian was kidnapped in the same year his father died, Queiroz was to be put up for adoption by his abductors .
However there was some luck in the awful circumstances when Queiroz was returned to his mother unharmed with the hope his life would become somewhat easier.
At 10 though the Brazilian spilt his kidney in two as he fell from a tree and on to a rock, he recovered in a larger town's hospital away from home.
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However the man nicknamed Sem Ri' - which means 'missing kidney' - showed resilience to what life had thrown at him and just 7 years later after losing a kidney he was junior world champion.
At 19 he won his first senior world title along with two more in the run up to Rio 2016 and now he has taken two medals in his home country and is a true Olympian.
Queiroz has had many races he has had to win the most important haven't been in a canoe, but after today's second Olympic medal he certainly will feel that the race to survive is well and truly won .