
Claudia Contreras
Venezuela
As a little girl growing up in Venezuela, Claudia Contreras spent weekends at the park with her dad, brother, and a ball. The sports landscape was traditionally dominated by men, but she ran, swam, climbed, and played volleyball and basketball. “The stereotype is,” she says, “that boys are supposed to be stronger and faster—that sports is for them—but that wasn’t the case in my family.”