---
title: "Running is the Only Victory"
published: 2016-02-25
updated: 2026-08-04
source: "https://dev-abp.massivoai.com/en/articles/correr-es-la-unica-victoria"
---

# Running is the Only Victory

**Among the bustling crowd of 5,000 people waiting for the start of the Clásica La Candelaria on February 14th, one smile stood out from all the rest. It was the smile of a little girl, sitting in her wheelchair, excited to start a new race with her father as her engine. It was Victoria's smile.**

—Daughter, I want to give you a gift, choose a country and I'll take you there.

—No dad, what I want to do is run.

But running, ironically, is something Victoria Chavarría, only five years old, cannot do. She suffers from a rare genetic disease that affects the growing ends of her bones and currently prevents her from walking for more than 20 minutes before she has to use her wheelchair.

But running is what Victoria asked for, so her father took her to run. For the past two months, Rafael Chavarría has been fulfilling his daughter's dream, taking her to race while people and other athletes watch with emotion. On Victoria's face is a smile worth more than a thousand trophies. "When we were arriving at the finish line of La Candelaria, I lifted her out of her chair to cross with her in my arms; the support and applause from people are very rewarding, she just asks me why, why do people applaud so much?", Chavarría says.

Apart from enjoying the race and the support of the people, Victoria loves collecting medals. "She only thinks about running, she's a very enthusiastic girl and has impressive charisma", her father says. "She's the one who motivates you", he concludes.

Although Victoria's disease is chronic and tends to disable her more and more, surgery could greatly improve her condition and, with the help of some orthopedic devices, she could maintain her ability to walk. At the Caja Costarricense del Seguro Social, however, they scheduled the surgery for 2021, when Victoria likely won't be able to walk anymore. "Victoria's operation is very expensive because it requires knee reconstruction" Rafael explains. "At the Caja they told us they couldn't do anything to move up the surgery date".

But her father hopes to raise enough money to do the procedure sooner. One option is to organize a race, for which they have the support of the Municipality of Alajuela, where they live. "This is not a situation for pity or crying, it's a situation to fight and work" Rafael says. "We want to give her a good quality of life. The world belongs to fighters, whoever fights for what they want achieves it, and I'm fighting for Victoria, who is what I have" the father concludes.

The next race that Victoria and her father will run will be the [TENA](https://www.abuenpaso.cr/Race/detail/81/tena) race, on March 13th. We hope to see you there and in many more races. You can follow Victoria on her [Facebook page](https://www.facebook.com/rachaper?fref=ts).

A Buen Paso uses [Massivo](https://massivoai.com), the event-registration platform that powers this article.