25 August 2008
Mexican-American Olympic Wrestler Wins Gold
Says he’s “living the American dream”
The following article by a freelance contributor to the U.S. Olympic Committee Web site (http://www.teamusa.org) originally appeared on August 19 and is reprinted with permission.
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Making a Golden Choice
By Tommy Hine
www.teamusa.org
Henry Cejudo grew up in a tough neighborhood with tough friends. It’s possible that he could have ended up in jail like his father had.
Born after his parents immigrated without papers from Mexico to the United States, Cejudo had a choice about what kind of life to live, and he chose to wrestle. Two years ago, Cejudo was wrestling in high school in Colorado. Tuesday night, he was crowned an Olympic champion.
"I'm living the American dream right now," Cejudo said after he defeated Japan's Tomohiro Matsunaga in the freestyle 55kg weight class gold medal match. "The United States is the land of opportunity. It's the best country in the world, and I'm just glad to represent it.”
"This is what I told you I was going to do. I set my goal. I trained hard. I had good people around me. I put the pieces together, and I believed in myself. I did it."
Cejudo couldn't mask his emotions after the referee raised his hand as the new champion. He draped an American flag across his shoulders, and tears flowed when he made his victory lap.
"This is what I always wanted," said Cejudo, 21. "The frustration was let out. All the hard work and everything. It was so cool.”
"Coming out of a Mexican-American background, it feels good to represent the U.S. Not many Mexicans get the chance to do that. "
Cejudo beat the 2006 world champion Radoslav Velikov of Bulgaria in an early round en route to the gold medal.
"He's America's guy," said Terry Brands, Cejudo's personal coach the last three years. "He's a testament to the fighting spirit of Americans. I can't say enough about him. I love the little guy.
"He has done an unbelievable job under the circumstances he was in, coming from the environment he did. He's done as unbelievable job of not being a victim, not being a woe-is-me story, of not being a knucklehead. He's done an unbelievable job of taking his environment and saying, ‘Who gives a dog-gone? I'm going to work, and I'll get what I got coming to me. I'm going to work until that pay day comes."'
Cejudo lost the first periods in all three of his matches and then won the next two periods to reach the gold-medal final with Matsunaga. Thirty minutes after the medal ceremony, Cejudo still had the flag draped across his shoulders.
"I don't want to let it go," he said. "I just might sleep with this. This is my dream. It was all worth it. I told everybody I would never take the victim's role. We always moved forward. My Mom always taught us to suck it up.”
"She said, ‘Whatever you want to do, you can do.' And that's what I did."
Tommy Hine is a freelance contributor for teamusa.org. This story was not subject to the approval of the United States Olympic Committee or any National Governing Bodies.
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