PERIBONIO AVILA Tomas

General
EARLY DAYS
He was born in Miami, FL, United States of America, to Ecuadorian parents, and moved to Ecuador at age two. As a child he spent several years in Ecuador and 10 years in Chile, where his father worked in international trade for the Ecuadorian government. While he was in middle school the family returned to the United States of America and settled in Suwanee, GA. He later enrolled at the University of South Carolina. (swimmingworldmagazine.com, 15 Jun 2015, 17 Aug 2020)

REPRESENTING ECUADOR
After his first season swimming at the University of South Carolina in the United States of America, his father suggested that he could compete for Ecuador, and contacted the president of Ecuador's swimming federation Jorge Delgado. "I didn't think swimming would take me this far. And then I had kind of a breakout season my freshman year. That's when my dad reached out to me and said, 'You know, you have an option here. You have the times to be able to do it. Do you want me to go through the process of making the call to Ecuador to get in contact with the swimming federation and the ministry of sport there?' And here we are today." He first competed for Ecuador at the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto, ON, Canada. "It gave me a lot of energy having a flag on the cap rather than a university or a club. You have a country behind you, supporting you. It was something memorable." (eluniverso.com, 01 Aug 2018; eltelegrafo.com.ec, 20 Nov 2017; swimmingworldmagazine.com, 15 Jun 2015, 17 Aug 2020)