Paco Peralta was born in the town of Manzanilla in the province of Huelva, and moved to Huelva city when he was aged two. He took up archery in 1973 at the age of 30, and three years later won the outdoor Spanish Team Championship on home soil at Huelva. Peralta started competing with the national archery team internationally from 1977 and in preparation for the 1980 Moskva Olympics he had to make a great sacrifice by travelling every Friday from his home in the south of Spain, to Oviedo in the North. The return journey was about 1,500 kilometres, and he was back home every Monday to continue his work at a refinery. In Moskva, Peralta became the first Huelva-born athlete to compete at the Olympics. He gave up active archery in 1981 after competing in the National Championships at Ibiza, but returned to the sport some 20 years later to help young archers at the Club Asirio de Tiro con Arco. He eventually retired from the sport completely for health reasons in 2016. Paco Peralta set many Spanish records, and received many accolades and awards, including the 600 FITA Star.
Spain