Making A Golden Choice

With the friends he kept, living in the tough neighborhoods he did, Henry Cejudo could just as easily been in jail today like his father was.

Instead, Cejudo had a choice after his parents immigrated without papers from Mexico to the states, and he chose to wrestle.

Two years ago, Cejudo was wrestling in high school in Colorado Springs. Tuesday night, he was crowned an Olympic champion.

"I'm living the American dream right now," Cejduo said after decisioning Japan's Tomohiro Matsunaga in the freestyle 55kg gold medal final. "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. "

Another compelling story that unfolded throughout the day didn't have as happy an ending. As recently as Sunday afternoon, Mike Zadick wasn't even on the U.S. Olympic wrestling team. Tuesday afternoon, he was one victory away from the bronze-medal match.

A strange series of circumstances even gave Zadick that chance.

In four attempts, the U.S. team couldn't qualify for the 60kg Olympic class, but it brought Zadick to Beijing anyway. He couldn't live with other athletes in the Olympic Village. He didn't have an Olympic credential. He wasn't issued U.S. team uniforms.

Bulgaria's misfortunes eventually gave Zadick his Olympic opportunity. First, Bulgaria's top wrestler in his weight class tore an Achilles tendon playing basketball in the athletes' village. When the back-up was summoned from Bulgaria, he was in an auto accident en route to the airport, and he fractured a rib.

The U.S. petitioned to have Zadick added to the field, based on his ability and past performance as 2006 world silver medalist. Three days ago, the petition was approved, and Zadick had his Olympic moment.

Actually, he had two moments before losing to Ukraine's Vasyl Fedoryshyn in the round of eight. When Fedoryshyn reached the gold- medal final, Zadick was given a second chance in the repechage. One victory shy of a bronze medal match, Zadick suffered a disappointing loss to Bazar Bazarguev of Kyrgyzstan.

It had been a strange three days.

"It's been a lot longer than that, just the emotional roller coaster of getting ready for this and not knowing and kind of believing you're going to get it, but still having that separation,"

said Zadick, from Solon, IA. "It was something that I was working and striving to prepare for, and when it came down, I got it. It was last- minute. I wish I had represented myself better. I'm disappointed in myself.

"It's an opportunity I wanted when I started wrestling when I was five years old 25 years ago. It's pretty sour right now. It happened so quick, and it ended so quick. It's kind of a shock to me right now. Maybe when I'm about 80 years old, and I'm bored out of my mind, I might sit down and say, ‘Shoot, I was an Olympian."'

Cejudo is far more than that now after beating 2006 world champion Radosiav 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 unbeliveable 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 feature was not subject to the approval of the United States Olympic Committee or any National Governing Bodies.