Catalina Ontaneda

Catalina Ontaneda Vivar (born c.1977) is an Ecuadorian sportsperson who became the Minister of Sport. She later set out to cycle to Canada.

Life
Ontaneda is from Loja and she was born in about 1977. She graduated from the Catholic University in Quito with a degree in economics.

She has been a keen sportswoman taking part in a number of sports with some results. In 1990 she competed at BMX and in 1992 she was chosen to join Pichincha's basketball team. It was her ability at soccer that gained her a scholarship to East Tennessee State University. In 2011 she was in the Galápagos Islands competing in a triathlon. Ontaneda has a Master of Business Administration degree and a diploma in Adventure Sports from the Canadian Thompson Rivers University. She was the manager of a High Performance Sports Center.

She was appointed as the Minister of Sport by Rafael Correa's Presidential decree. There were ten other ministerial appointments in April 2015 which the President said would be last of his appointments until the end of his presidency. She was introduced as the new minister by Cecilia Vaca Jones who was the Coordinating Minister for Social Development. The previous minister was the former goalkeeper José Francisco Cevallos.

Mountain climber Paulina Aulestia's success at climbing Everest was recognised by Ontaneda as the Minister of Sport. Aulestia had received $60,000 to fund her attemnpt and she thanked Ontaneda for her support.

In November 2021 Ontaneda set out on a two year bike ride that she planned would take her to Canada. In the following year she had to break her journey in Managua in Nicaragua. She left to attend her grandmother's funeral, but she planned to return to her bike and complete the journey.