Track and Field Blogs - Leonel Manzano

8/13/08

I decided to sleep in till 9am today went for a 15min run and then went to check my e-mail. I think it was probably about 60 emails that I have received usually 40 is the average. I had set up two appointments to do interviews one with KXAN news station back home in Austin and the other with Telivisa a national Mexican television. When I finished up with KXAN the Telivisa crew was ready for the interview. I think they were a little anxious to start rolling because they were shooting me as I was doing the KXAN interview. When I was done I walked over to Telivisa. They had a friend from another TV station. The man walked up to shake my hand and I realized he was speaking broken up Spanish that sounded more like Portuguese. I then proceeded to speak to him in Portuguese. He was astounded that an American could speak Portuguese. The man turned out to be from Brazil and was really eager to sit me down and have an interview I did the interview with Telivisa as they were really excited to sit me down first.

They asked me many questions but there were a couple that made me even more grateful for what I have. They asked me, “How were you to reach the level that you are now because it is so hard for athletes in Mexico to reach this level. How were you able to do it? As I thought deeply I realized that the opportunities that have came my way would have never happened if it wasn’t for the U.S. I had found out some things from some Mexican athletes that I had met at the NACAC games in 2006. One of the guys that I competed against didn’t even have a jersey. He had to go buy his own and the sad part was that it wasn’t a jersey but a green shirt. I had asked the guy how come you don’t have a jersey he said that they didn’t give him one. I didn’t know what to think.

So as I talked to the Telivisa reporters I told them about the school systems in the states and how sports and schools go hand in hand and about the No pass no play rule. It was like they had never heard any such thing before. In Mexico everything is separated and there are no such things as scholarships and school and sports being in the same system. This again made me appreciate all that I have and to know that my home is the U.S.

I had heard about Ana Guevara ( Mexican 400m runner) trying to speak out against some Athlete Mexican Officials for being corrupt. As my roots are Mexican I sympathized with them not really knowing what to tell them. They really wanted to hear all about the school systems and about my scholarship to UT. Again they were taken by it and they said “I wish our athletes had that much support. And looking back I again realized how much support I have had through out the years.

Going from from having No running shoes to having shoes on call.

The next interview was really fun. I had long a waited in a dream to have interviews done in Portuguese since it is one of my Majors at UT. I waited the day that this would come, who knew that today would be the day. I did the interview with the Brazilian Reporters. They wanted to hear my story as well. I think MOMS in Brazil rule because the whole interview they kept asking me about my mom. So what I figured from the interview that MOMS are the head of the family in Brazil. They were really excited when I told them that my parents were coming on their first international flight. Since this was the first time my parents leave the country except for Mexico, first time they fly and probably the first time they will see the ocean. They again asked, “ And your mom, what does she think about all this?” I told them what she said about not really believing it and how she probably wouldn’t believe it until she was here in china.. haha

They were thrilled with my answer.

Then they were like, “when does your mom and dad arrive? We want to meet them and take video of them when they arrive”. Only if they knew that my mom is really shy. And she hates being on TV. I guess it’s a part of the culture.

When the interview was over I had this big smile from the left ear to the right ear in excitement that I had done 3 interviews in three different languages, Spanish, Portuguese and English, and I again realized that that wouldn’t have been possible if I wasn’t from the UNITED STATES and had all the opportunities that the US has given me.