Spanish Olympic karate medallist Damián Quintero is going back to the Cayos Cochinos. On 31 August 2026, Mediaset’s daytime programme Vamos a ver confirmed him as an official contestant on Supervivientes All Stars 3, the Telecinco revival that gathers familiar faces from the franchise for another season in Honduras. Spanish television press — including verTele, La Razón, 20minutos and El Televisero — reported him as the seventh named cast member, after Rosa Benito, Arkano, Alma Bollo, Asraf Beno, Almudena Martínez “Chiqui” and Ivana Icardi. The same day, the official Supervivientes account framed the announcement in those terms. The premiere is set for Thursday 10 September 2026 at 21:45 on Telecinco.
For a sport that measures careers in kata scores and Olympic cycles, the casting is not a side note. Quintero arrives as a returnee who already lived the island once — and left with unfinished business.
From the tatami to the Cayos Cochinos
Damián Hugo Quintero Capdevila was born on 4 July 1984 in Buenos Aires and competes for Spain, with deep roots in the Torremolinos area. On the international stage his defining Olympic result is clear: silver in men’s kata at Tokyo 2020, recorded by Olympedia. That medal sits at the centre of any honest résumé of his competitive life.
At World Championships level the distinctions matter. He is a 2014 team kata world champion (Bremen) and a multiple individual Worlds silver medallist — including 2016, 2018, 2021 and 2023. European titles and three European Games golds (2015, 2019, 2023) fill out a long stretch at or near the top of the kata rankings. What Spanish entertainment press sometimes shortens to a bare “world champion” label is, for karate.news, better said with that team gold and those individual silvers in view.
His elite exit is recent. Coverage of the 2025 World Championships in Cairo places his last Worlds appearance on 29 November 2025, after which he retired from professional competition. In the All Stars presentation video quoted by 20minutos, verTele and Diario Sur, he linked that retirement to the need for a new challenge — and to the final he never reached on Telecinco the first time.
Supervivientes 2025: fifth place, a rescate, nearly a hundred days
Quintero’s only completed run in the franchise is Supervivientes 2025 (Supervivientes: Perdidos en Honduras), filmed again in the Cayos Cochinos. The season premiered on 6 March 2025 and ended on 17 June 2025, with Borja González as winner. Quintero entered as the Olympic karate face of the cast — and left as one of its physically strongest players.
Telecinco’s post-show interview credits him with six leader (“collar de líder”) wins. On Sunday 1 June 2025, in a surprise Conexión Honduras vote rather than a Thursday gala, the public saved Álex Adrover over Quintero (42.8% against the karateka, per Telecinco). That first exit made him the 10th expelled, after 87 days on the island.
The story did not end there. Roughly 48 hours later, after Adrover was evacuated with a knee injury that ruled out continuity, production offered Quintero a rescate. He returned automatically nominated, accepted the boat back, and stayed about ten more days. On Thursday 12 June 2025, in the semifinal gala, the audience saved Álvaro Muñoz Escassi; Quintero became the last castaway eliminated before the final four — universally reported as fifth place. Telecinco totals his stay at 97 days (87 + 10). Other tallies differ slightly; the network’s own interview remains the cleanest narrative figure. In that conversation he said he was frustrated to miss the final yet “satisfecho con mi concurso.”
During the 2025 season, Telecinco and sports wires also aired an on-island medal narrative around rival Ali Sofuoglu and a possible upgrade of Quintero’s 2023 Worlds and 2024 Europeans silvers. That provisional story did not stick: Diario Sur reported on 30 September 2025 that the CAS restored Sofuoglu’s medals. Quintero does not keep those individual golds — another reason to keep World Championship language precise.
All Stars 3: the final he still wants
The All Stars casting closes a short circle. Confirmed on 31 August 2026, Quintero is the seventh official name on a list headed by Rosa Benito and closed, for now, by the Olympic medallist with Torremolinos roots. Location: Cayos Cochinos / Honduras again. Hosts, as reported by verTele and El Confidencial, include Jorge Javier Vázquez on the galas, Sandra Barneda on Conexión Honduras, and María Lamela from Honduras. As of early September 2026 the season has not yet aired; there is no placement to invent.
His stated motive, quoted across Spanish TV outlets from the presentation tape, is blunt: he wants the final he felt he deserved in 2025; he is competitive; he retired from pro sport “last year” and needed a challenge. For karate readers, that sentence lands differently than for a pure reality audience. The man who once measured perfection in kata sequences on the tatami now measures unfinished business in public votes and leader collars — still in a karategi of sorts, if only metaphorically, under the Honduran sun.
What the return means on the karate beat
People features on karate.news do not traffic in casting gossip. They register when an Olympic medallist’s public life shifts register: from WKF ranking lists and World Championship brackets to a Telecinco island format watched far beyond Spain’s sports pages. Quintero’s path is unusually clean to document. Debut in 2025, fifth after a rescate; elite farewell in Cairo, late November 2025; All Stars confirmation on 31 August 2026; premiere 10 September. The tatami credentials stay fixed — Tokyo silver; 2014 team world gold; a shelf of individual Worlds silvers and European titles — while the television chapter reopens in the same archipelago that already took nearly a hundred days of his life.
Whether All Stars 3 delivers the final he names as his espinita is a question for the galas ahead. What is already on the record is the arc: an Olympic kata silver medallist, retired from the elite circuit, choosing Honduras again — not as a debutant, but as a returnee who knows exactly how far fifth place is from the last night on the beach.
Sources
- verTele / elDiario.es — Supervivientes All Stars 3, seventh official contestant (31 Aug 2026): https://www.eldiario.es/vertele/noticias/supervivientes-all-stars-3-anuncia-septimo-concursante-oficial-campeon-olimpico-recibio-medalla-isla_1_13476799.html
- La Razón — Quintero joins All Stars 3 / Cayos Cochinos (31 Aug 2026): https://www.larazon.es/television/damian-quintero-nuevo-concursante-supervivientes-all-stars-3-olimpico-vuelve-cayos-cochinos_202608316a9576ee2d7d3022177927c0.html
- 20minutos — confirmation on Vamos a ver (31 Aug 2026): https://www.20minutos.es/television/damian-quintero-campeon-mundo-karate-nuevo-concursante-confirmado-superviviente-all-stars-3_7031038_0.html
- El Televisero / HuffPost — @Supervivientes “séptimo confirmado” (Aug 2026): https://eltelevisero.huffingtonpost.es/2026/08/la-lista-sigue-creciendo-supervivientes-all-stars-anuncia-a-dos-nuevos-concursantes-oficiales-para-su-3a-edicion-en-telecinco/
- Diario Sur — Málaga sports angle, All Stars return (31 Aug 2026): https://www.diariosur.es/deportes/mas-deportes/karateca-malagueno-damian-quintero-sorpresa-regresa-supervivientes-20260831142214-nt.html
- El Confidencial — premiere 10 Sep 2026, 21:45 Telecinco: https://www.elconfidencial.com/television/programas-tv/2026-08-31/supervivientes-all-stars-fecha-estreno-telecinco_4415591/
- Telecinco — post-SV2025 interview (87/10/97 days, 42.8%, six leaders, 5th): https://www.telecinco.es/reality/20250619/supervivientes-damian-quintero-entrevista-emociones-amistad-pelayo-mas-sensible_18_015910224.html
- FormulaTV — 1 Jun 2025 expulsion vs Álex Adrover: https://www.formulatv.com/noticias/supervivientes-2025-damian-quintero-expulsado-alex-133381/
- FormulaTV — 12 Jun 2025 last exit before final four: https://www.formulatv.com/noticias/damian-quintero-convierte-ultimo-expulsado-133545/
- El Televisero — rescate after Adrover injury (~4 Jun 2025): https://eltelevisero.huffingtonpost.es/2025/06/supervivientes-2025-anula-la-expulsion-de-damian-quintero-y-se-reincorpora-al-concurso-por-esta-razon/
- Olympedia — Damián Quintero (Tokyo 2020 kata silver): https://www.olympedia.org/athletes/142555
- Athlete track record: https://www.damianquintero.com/en/track-record/
- Diario Sur — CAS restores Sofuoglu medals (30 Sep 2025): https://www.diariosur.es/deportes/mas-deportes/tas-falla-favor-ali-sofuoglu-damian-quintero-se-queda-sin-medalla-20250930121024-nt.html
- ES Wikipedia — medal table / Nov 2025 retirement context: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dami%C3%A1n_Quintero
- Featured image: https://www.wkf.net/files/images/news/030426_farewell_damian_2.png — photo credit wkf.net / WKF (farewell event, Madrid; photographer not named on the WKF article).
