2012 London Olympic GamesJul 18, 2012 by Diego Estrada
My home country needed a Ritzenhein
My home country needed a Ritzenhein
My home country needed a Ritzenhein
Hello everyone, hope not to bore you with this first entry but I thought it would be fitting to start things off this way…
With this being an Olympic year and all I decided to red shirt with Coach Heins’ approval to prepare for a big summer, but after NCAA indoors I was second guessing that decision. Something was missing back in March, I wasn’t strong enough, I felt like a miler over the longer distances, yet we carried on with plan despite hitting a bump on the road. It was decision time I along with my family and Coach had been dealing with one of the most stressful decisions of my life… putting a single countries flag on my running career.
I was born in Mexico and immigrated to the States when I was an infant, but what many don’t know is that I grew up in a special community, the East Side of Salinas, California. It’s a unique area inhabited by thousands of dreamers like myself, immigrants who are here in America fighting for their American dream. I grew up in community of Mexican Americans, my schools where roughly 96% Hispanic (Mexican), so you see there was a huge sense of pride on representing both countries but I couldn’t, there is no such thing so the time had finally come to pick one. Countries are not like universities and the decision was big as it was permanent. There were some issues of miscommunication that added to the stress, it wasn’t easy but the people who knew me best and understood how hard it was to live in America and put on my native countries singlet shared their opinions with me.
As most know I will proudly be wearing Mexico’s singlet in this summer’s Olympic Games and I will be racing the 10,000 meters. It’s a huge honor to be representing the People of Mexico, my family aside from my 12 year old sister were all born in Mexico and the majority of our relatives still reside in Mexico. So not only do I represent an entire country but I will also be representing my entire family. A big influence in my decision was Mexico’s rich history of past distance running. At a point Mexicans were the Kenyans of today, but where did they go?
U.S. distance running is booming, I don’t know how big of an impact I would have had racing for the USA but I know one thing is for sure I can impact Mexico’s young athletes and maybe just maybe start a revolution. A 12:59 for the U.S. would rank 7th and might make a headline or two but a sub 13 for the young upcoming Mexican stars would bring hope and bigger aspirations. With my decision I took into account the impact I could potentially have in the sport and decided my home country needed a Ritzenhein of their own to help inspire the future Mexican athletes. Just like Ritz impacted my running I wanted to share my own running with Mexico and impact them.
Hoping to keep you guys posted on things just a lot of travels here… thanks for reading!
Yesterday Diego ran the 1,500 meters in Gent, Belgium where he ran 3:46.29 to finish 9th.
With this being an Olympic year and all I decided to red shirt with Coach Heins’ approval to prepare for a big summer, but after NCAA indoors I was second guessing that decision. Something was missing back in March, I wasn’t strong enough, I felt like a miler over the longer distances, yet we carried on with plan despite hitting a bump on the road. It was decision time I along with my family and Coach had been dealing with one of the most stressful decisions of my life… putting a single countries flag on my running career.
I was born in Mexico and immigrated to the States when I was an infant, but what many don’t know is that I grew up in a special community, the East Side of Salinas, California. It’s a unique area inhabited by thousands of dreamers like myself, immigrants who are here in America fighting for their American dream. I grew up in community of Mexican Americans, my schools where roughly 96% Hispanic (Mexican), so you see there was a huge sense of pride on representing both countries but I couldn’t, there is no such thing so the time had finally come to pick one. Countries are not like universities and the decision was big as it was permanent. There were some issues of miscommunication that added to the stress, it wasn’t easy but the people who knew me best and understood how hard it was to live in America and put on my native countries singlet shared their opinions with me.
As most know I will proudly be wearing Mexico’s singlet in this summer’s Olympic Games and I will be racing the 10,000 meters. It’s a huge honor to be representing the People of Mexico, my family aside from my 12 year old sister were all born in Mexico and the majority of our relatives still reside in Mexico. So not only do I represent an entire country but I will also be representing my entire family. A big influence in my decision was Mexico’s rich history of past distance running. At a point Mexicans were the Kenyans of today, but where did they go?
U.S. distance running is booming, I don’t know how big of an impact I would have had racing for the USA but I know one thing is for sure I can impact Mexico’s young athletes and maybe just maybe start a revolution. A 12:59 for the U.S. would rank 7th and might make a headline or two but a sub 13 for the young upcoming Mexican stars would bring hope and bigger aspirations. With my decision I took into account the impact I could potentially have in the sport and decided my home country needed a Ritzenhein of their own to help inspire the future Mexican athletes. Just like Ritz impacted my running I wanted to share my own running with Mexico and impact them.
Hoping to keep you guys posted on things just a lot of travels here… thanks for reading!
Yesterday Diego ran the 1,500 meters in Gent, Belgium where he ran 3:46.29 to finish 9th.