This past weekend I was at a judo event in the Irving Convention Center. It was what you would call an invitational, so there were people from all over the world. I saw some people competing from Spain, Russia, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Poland, Canada, United States and my friends from Colombia. I am sure there were more than the few I could see in the one day I was there.
The whole thing was great, from the atmosphere to the actual set-up that they had going. There was a great amount of people, several hundreds I'd say, fighting that for the whole three days. Six mats to fight in and pretty much full the whole time. Some of the combats were crazy, others a little lame, to be honest; amazing talent seen for the most experts who were expecting to add score for the international ranking, and the new competitors discovering the taste of adrenaline, frustration, fear and glory for the first time.
This picture was taken before the fall that ended and incredibly short combat that was about six seconds. Santiago is the one in white, who won.
Judo has had a great impact on me because my mom had been a judo athlete for a long time before I was born, and so I was born into it and spent many days with their long hours attending to competition events, most of the times just as an spectator, some few others I even took part in the matches. I did judo for a good seven or eight years before diverting into other sports, so going to the tournament and watching my friends was incredibly refreshing. It came about with so many great memories of my first time going to a tournament or just being in practice with them (friends that i grew up with and it is been so long I don't remember meeting them for the first time). They just made me proud, to see how someone can be that committed to something they just love, that made it a way of life. Juan, one of my friends, is making his way to Tokyo 2020. Can you imagine that? Olympics on his way. He is just about to end his first year round tour of tournaments where he had the chance of visiting countries like Spain, France, Germany, Italy, Slovenia, United Arab Emirates, Cuba, U.S. and Argentina, and now he is in the top ten best judo players of his age. Santiago, on the other hand, is expecting to reach Olympics in 2024, he has been taking some important events as well, to empower himself for the best to come. Breathtaking. Way to go, guys.
And speaking of amazing, in this very tournament they both got medals, Juan got silver and Santiago got bronze. It was something we all celebrated and even now I think about how this amazing people I grew up with are doing something so amazing makes me incredibly happy I got the chance to be there to see it.
Juan and Santiago; ready to take on the world.
