Springs wrestler brings home a gold

BEIJING • Mom always had the term of endearment.

Mis ninos de oro - My golden boys.

That's what Nelly Rico called her sons.

No matter the situation, no matter the living standard, no matter that it was a nomadic lifestyle; Rico's boys knew they were golden - at least to somebody.

In front of friends, family and a gym full of onlookers, one of Rico's sons, Henry Cejudo, showed how golden he was.

The 21-year-old Coronado High School graduate defeated Japan's Tomohiro Matsunaga 2-2, 3-0 in the 121-pound freestyle gold medal match Tuesday.

Mama's golden boy won gold at the XXIX Olympiad. He's the youngest gold medalist in USA Wrestling history.

"I wish she was here," Cejudo said. "... She has done so much for us. I wish I could just give her the medal right now. That's who it's going to go to anyway. I always give all my hardware to my mom."

Mom didn't make the trip. Instead, she was home in Colorado Springs, vomiting from the nervousness of her golden boy's matches.

We've heard the story of Cejudo's youth. We've heard it so much that his older brother by 16 months, Angel, is getting tired of hearing it.

Too bad.

It bears mentioning. It gives perspective.

When you see all 5 feet, 4 inches of Cejudo, arms spread wide, veins popping, ripped muscles bulging, fists grasping an American flag and his head thrown back, you want to know what created that energy. When Cejudo is on the mat, tears filling squinted eyes as he leans back on his knees, mouth wide open and yelling you want to know what created the emotion.

His life did.

It wasn't always golden for Cejudo. Life gave him every opportunity to take the wrong path. Mom and dad were illegal immigrants from Mexico City. Dad seemed to enjoy California's penal institutions more than leading a life filled with attentiveness toward his children. Cejudo wasn't a saint, but he didn't follow in the footsteps of a biological he barely knew.

The family moved numerous times, California, New Mexico, Arizona and Colorado, each time with little money, but new hope. Space was cramped - privacy nonexistent.

"It was tough for him," Frank Saenz said. Saenz was Cejudo's childhood coach. He coached Cejudo's brothers, too. "And going through some of that stuff made him tougher."

There was solace on the mat. On the mat, Cejudo was free, in control. It was and remains his Shangri-La
So, when we see Cejudo's energy and emotion emitted the way it was here, we're seeing more than happiness from a gold medal victory.

"This is what I wanted," Cejudo said. "The frustration was let out, the hard work and everything."

It's the "and everything" that we saw. That is what makes Cejudo's gold so special. Only the uninformed says life is fair and actually believes the statement. Life punches and kicks and hits and grabs and smiles while doing it.

Cejudo took life's shots, all of them.

And he's still standing.

"Look, I don't care how we were brought up," Angel said, his voice saturated with his own anger and a defiance toward doubters. "No excuses."

None were given.

USA Wrestling coach Kevin Jackson once said that Cejudo was the future of the sport. He had to change that statement. Cejudo is the present and the future.

Cejudo dropped the first period in each of his three early matches, which included defeating the 2006 World champion, Bulgaria's Radoslav Velikov.

He didn't spot Matsunaga a period, tying the reigning Asian champion 2-2 in the opening period. Cejudo won the period because of the superior two-point move to Matsunaga's two one-point moves. Cejudo quickly grabbed three points in the second period and held on for what turned out to be an easy gold medal victory.

"I'm pretty unorthodox," Cejudo said. "I can find a leg from anywhere. And that's just what happened. I didn't even see the leg, but I ended up grabbing it. ... I knew if I kept driving, he'd end up on his back, which he did."

Unorthodox - a nice word choice.

The son of Mexican immigrants realized the American dream in a communist country.

It doesn't get more unorthodox for a golden boy than that.
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Columnist Milo Bryant can be reached at 636-0252 or milo.bryant@gazette.com. Check out Milo's blog, The Extra Milo, at http://milobryant.blogspot.com