Enrique Mendizábal did not take up sport shooting until he was 24 years old, after giving up on his previous athletic pursuit of canoeing. Nonetheless, he quickly became proficient in pistol shooting and was eventually selected to represent Peru at the 1948 London Olympics, where he finished 48th in the rapid-fire pistol event out of 59 competitors. Although he never again appeared in a major international tournament, he continued to practice the sport until the age of 80. By career he was a pharmacy technician and had his own pharmacy in San Marcos, Cajamarca.