Hector Curiel

When he was 16-years-old Hector Curiel took up boxing before switching to weightlifting, and he later became a multiple champion of Curaçao and the Netherlands Antilles. Curiel won five-consecutive national weightlifting titles as a bantamweight from 1955 to 1959, earning himself a spot on the national team. In 1959 he won silver at the Central American and Caribbean Games, and finished fourth at the Pan American Games in Chicago. With another national bantamweight title in 1960 he then represented the Netherlands Antilles at the Roma Olympics, finishing 11th.

Curiel was unbeatable at his home championships, winning multiple titles in the bantamweight and featherweight divisions from 1961 until 1974. In 1963 he competed at his second Pan American Games, this time winning silver in São Paulo. The next year he returned to the Olympics for the 1964 Tokyo Games but finished a disappointing 19th. In 1975 Curiel announced his retirement and became the coach of the national weightlifting team. For his services to the sport he was made a Knight of the Order of Orange-Nassau.