Personal information | |
---|---|
Full name | Enrique Figueroa Suárez |
Nickname(s) | Quique |
Nationality | Puerto Rican |
Born |
February 25, 1964 (age 52) San Juan, Puerto Rico |
Enrique Figueroa Suárez (born February 25, 1964), also known as "Quique Figueroa", is a Puerto Rican sailor. Figueroa is the only sailor of Puerto Rico to win four gold medals in the Central American-Caribbean Games. He has also competed at four Olympic Games between 1988 and 2004.
He was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where he was raised and where he went to school receiving his primary and secondary education. He first became interested and participated in sailing when he was ten years old. In 1980, when he was sixteen, he participated in his first competition, the 3rd "Hobie 16 worlds" celebrated in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands where he came in 3rd place. The following year (1981), he participated in the 6th Hobie Fourteen Worlds in Fortaleza, Brazil where he came first.
In 1984, Figueroa was in the 7th Hobie 14 Worlds celebrated in Puerto Azul, Philippines and came 3rd; in the same year, he enrolled the Universidad del Sagrado Corazon (Sacred Heart University) in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where he majored in Business Marketing.
Among the other competitions in which Figueroa has participated are:
In 1994, Figueroa won the IYRU World Sailing Championship title. He met and married Carla Malatrasi, a sportswoman from Puerto Rico who also loves sailing. In 1999, Figueroa and his wife Malatrasi won a gold medal in sailing in the Pan Am Hobie competition celebrated in Winnipeg, Canada. Figueroa competed in the 2000 Olympic Games held in Sydney, Australia without his wife. She stayed behind to give birth to the first of their two daughters, Isabella Victoria. In 2002, Figueroa and his wife came in 3rd place in the Hobie Racing-ISAF Sailing Games H-16 which took place in Marseille, France in which they went against 36 teams representing 20 nations.