(OLYMPIC CHANNEL. ORIGINAL SERIES)
I bought my family a TV as a gift.
And then I told them that
I'm bringing them this TV and on this TV,
you'll see me win the first Olympic medal
for Guatemala.
I gave the TV to my dad and he said,
"I promise you that I will take it
"out of the box when you will compete."
I had studied the rest of the competitors
and I saw that physically they
could win a medal but mentally,
in terms of that spirit that an athlete
needs to win a medal, they were lacking.
That was what I had, and I've had it
since I was a kid.
I have a great responsibility with
16 million Guatemalans,
who are keeping an eye on what
Erick Barrondo does.
Olympic medallists are the only ones
who are never going to be ex-medallists.
World champions today are champions,
tomorrow they become ex-world champions.
An Olympic medallist is the only one who
climbs up to the Olympus and stays there for ever.
(THE POWER OF ONE)
(GUATEMALA. CHASING THE SUN)
Alta Verapaz is one of the regions
with the largest green areas.
People make a living growing coffee,
cardamom, pepper.
Chiyuc is my home, the place where
I feel at peace, where I am Erick Barrondo,
but people look at me more like
the little boy who never left,
or who had to leave to change the life
of his family.
(CHIYUC, GUATEMALA)
My childhood was a little unusual.
It was a childhood where a child's
first toy was a work tool.
And I grew up working.
We didn't let him have the life we had.
When we were kids, we spent time playing
or killing birds. But not him.
He lived in another world.
He remains me a lot. Once, I told him,
"I'm going to buy you a toy car."
He was happy. But I gave him
a machete to work.
I grabbed my machete and went to work.
And when I had the money to buy the toy car,
I thought I'd better buy a shirt
because I barely have one. It helped us value things.
Today it serves us well.
We were really, really poor.
We've worked very hard.
And like I always told them, if I work,
it's to help them be somebody in life.
We've had a very hard life.
But based on these hard knocks
in life, I tell you, little by little
you learned to be a great man.
I have my little altar and I kneel
down and ask God to watch
over me. I always repeat,
"Thank you for your blessings.
"You gave to us with both hands full.
"And I always ask you to watch
"over my son, wherever he is.
"Since he won, you changed
"our life overnight."
(GUATEMALA CITY, GUATEMALA)
Guatemala is a third-world country
with very difficult problems in health
and education. A country with
health and education is a country with
a great deal of economic and social
development. Undoubtedly, this has
affected our population.
The few opportunities to study means
that very young children have to work.
Therefore, they don't have any opportunity to study.
It's a complicated circle that does not allow
Guatemala to excel on an economic level.
In Guatemala, soccer is king.
It's the sport that everyone is crazy about.
You will find people playing everywhere,
no matter where you look,
from little children to older kids.
Whenever they have a free moment, they play.
It is the sport that appeals to the masses.
Herrera, Herrera hits the ball!
How it is going on Antigua!
Antigua is going to be champion
and we're going to celebrate it here.
Come on, Antigua!
A few years ago, there was a
medallist with heart
who put the name of Guatemala on top.
Here, in the colonial city of Antigua,
we want to show the support
that we still give to our Olympic champion
Erick Barrondo!
A big round of applause!
When I was 10 years old,
I began to work as a gardener.
At 11, I started selling newspapers
on the streets of Quiche.
When I turned 17,
I began to work in a bakery.
This was precisely when Erick crossed
the finish line, I remember that I was
walking through the market
it was a party, like a fair in Quiche.
Raymundo lives right next to me.
Quiche is the closest village to Alta Verapaz.
And his story is summed up very well.
He went from selling newspapers
to being in the newspaper.
There had already been a lot of
race walkers before. And one common
characteristic of Guatemalan race walkers
has been that they come from
families with limited resources.
This has been a motivation to me.
I wanted to provide for my family,
and you find that in sports, if you work
for it, you can provide for your family.
Many people didn't believe that someone
from such a poor village like
San Cristobal Verapaz could achieve
something so important on an
international level.
It was a totally unknown area.
People only knew about the
region because later there was
a hillside known as Los Chorros
that unfortunately collapsed and
40 people died.
The best athletes in Guatemala come from
Alta Verapaz region. Perhaps due to its topography and
the hardships we have endured. Life is hard but it
prepares us for what will come in
the future. It prepared me for what I am today.
My sports career began when
I was six years old, when I won a
doll that cried. My mum did not
have a lot of money and I didn't
have a doll that cried. They held
an event at school and I won,
competing against tall athletes.
And me at my height. I was born little and
I'm still little. I'm 1.42 m (4ft 8in) tall.
It was the same neediness that
motivated me to keep going in
my sports career. I began to compete
and I ran for 16 years representing
Guatemala, always running barefoot.
I had my two boys and that's
when I stopped participating.
And suddenly Erick Barrondo appears,
he comes to compete at Injud stadium.
He comes to train here with Jorge Coy.
Then Jorge talked to him about me,
"If Herlinda Xol could do it,
"why can't you do it?"
(JORGE COY, RACE WALK COACH)
I've been an athletics coach
for 30 years. Many times
Verapaz stadium was completely empty.
8 or 10 years ago,
only a couple of people were
training with me.
But it all changed.
(LONDON 2012. RACE WALK MEN. 20KM)
I maybe anticipated the medal a bit.
And I started to sleep like an Olympic medallist.
To train like an Olympic medallist.
To eat like an Olympic medallist.
And to think like an Olympic medallist.
Live here Guatemalan TV!
Historic moment!
The most important moment of our history
not only in sports!
As the competition went by,
I saw great competitors.
I always listened to them breathe.
They looked at me. Few knew me.
I was seeing who were going to be
the strongest. I studied them.
And I was monitoring everything,
feeling more and more sure of what I could do.
Until a group of 5 athletes formed.
There were 5 of us fighting
for 3 medals.
And then a Chinese athlete started to
pull away from the competition. I, however,
preferred to be a bit cautious,
to stay a little behind.
The Russian athlete fell down.
And honestly, right then,
instead of saying, "Ooh, there's one less,
"the medal is more sure for me now,"
the first thing that popped into my
head was, "Will he be OK?"
When I turned around, I tried to see him and
I saw the ambulance picking him up.
I was first worried about his physical condition.
It never occurred to me that it was one
less athlete and that ensured me a medal.
Guatemala pay attention!
We are finishing in second place!
And then there were 4 of us
fighting for 3 medals. And that's when
I told myself, "I can do this
"This is why I'm here..." It was down to the
last lap. The bell rings. And I was saying to me,
"I am in the second place. we're close to the medal."
I remember that every step I took, I wanted to
finish fast, but that last lap would not end,
just would not end. And I turned around to
see if any athlete were coming up
from behind and I saw them on the
screen and they seemed very close.
I wanted to go faster, but the same emotion
made me feel like I wasn't going
fast enough or simply not going.
And when there were 200 metres left
to cross the finish line, Olympic champion
came in.
I turned to see if anyone was coming from behind.
No one was coming. I slowed down a bit.
I ended up crossing the line and in spite
of being prepared for it, it was
it was very hard for me to believe.
Erick Barrondo winning for Guatemala's
first Olympic medal in our history!
Come on, come on!
Three, four, five... Change!
After winning the Olympic medal,
someone who didn't even know
how to run began to run and jog.
That was my personal motivation,
and now I'm working as a trainer for the team
Little Jade Feet.
Keep your eyes up! That's it!
It's like it were coming from
the hill up there! That's it!
Your arm movement! Concentrate!
Careful! Careful!
Come on, Angela, don't fall behind!
Don't let him go!
Otherwise you fall far behind!
We started with 4 young people
and now in April, it will be 8 years
since the team was founded.
It's no longer just 4, there are 70 young
people that we are seeing in the village,
not only from the village,
they come from town, from distant communities.
They all want to participate, but now
since the events are all about resources,
everything is registration fees,
money, shoes, pure water.
When they finish, I tell them,
"Here is your pure water, kids, because
"before Herlinda Xol had to train,
"to go from here to Coban,
"run 21 kilometres without any bag of
pure water". I don't want my students to go
through that.
Training without pure water is suffering.
Erick and the Olympic medal
changed the young people of
Guatemala. Coban is the
city of athletics.
I call this stadium in Verapaz
Guatemala's cathedral of athletics.
That's it! Very good, very good,
very good! Don't lean forward
like that, Xavi. That's your mistake.
Alta Verapaz is now the seed of
race walking. Each trainer
has his own group of race walkers
and athletics.
Enjoy the practice, kids!
I don't want you to be stressed out!
As trainers here, we realised that
we have race walkers.
In Coban, if we go with Jorge Coy,
there are race walkers.
If we go with Evelyn Nunez,
here are race walkers.
Like I say to motivate my kids,
I have a group of 15 race walkers
in different categories, who have to
struggle to make it. It doesn't matter
how it's done, as long as you find
the way to achieve things.
If you have the desire and a goal,
everything is possible.
(BEIJING 2008. RACE WALK WOMEN - 20KM)
Since I was a little girl, I dreamed about
going to the Olympic Games.
I said, "Someday I have to go to the
"Olympic Games. It doesn't matter how,
"but I'm going to get there".
Until finally, thank God, I did it.
That's why I work. For the love of
something I enjoy. For the
love of what you've learned and
what you bring to it.
So that the rest learn and reach the point
they need to reach, to where
Erick got to and even further.
My personal goal for young people is
to do sports, do athletics, do race walking.
That's what we want.
That's what they tell me.
They want to be like Barrondo and
Herlinda Xol.
We pray God that they do sports.
Your heel! Your heel!
Your arm movement! Your arm movement!
Don't cross them!
Come on, come on!
So many young people want to be like
Erick Barrondo. They come here to me
and say, "I want to be a race walker,
"like Erick Barrondo."
It is enormously fulfilling. It makes me proud.
I'm a millionaire. Not in terms of money,
but in satisfaction.
That's it! That's where I want them.
You can do it, kids! You can do it!
I think that we do open doors.
We show that when you want
to do something, when you have goals,
to do it, you eventually do it.
That was the example of Erick Barrondo.
After winning the medal,
like 3 days later, he called me.
I congratulated him on the medal.
I told him, "You really did it. We tried,
"but we couldn't, but we did get to
"represent Guatemala."
They're going to do that!
Don't forget the technique!
And he answered me, "No, Herlinda.
"Thank you for opening doors.
"You set the example. You were able to
"do it. Humbly, modestly, barefoot.
"And I followed in your footsteps
"to be an athlete."
Relax, 1, 2, 3!
On a sports level, this medal has shown
Guatemalans that where there's a will,
there's a way. It gave a new
perspective about walking race
and athletics.
It was a phenomenon, you saw children
walking in the street, saying,
"I'm going to beat you." "No, me,
"I'm Erick Barrondo." And now they practice
this sport.
Because of the Olympic medal,
think many children have
realised that sports are the door to
get out of poverty, maybe not to
become rich, but to have stability and
an opportunity to have a better life.
Soccer is very popular in Guatemala.
But the day the Olympic medal was won,
the national sport took a complete turn.
The impact of the Olympic medal
had has made the country turn to
practising sports.
For me, Erick is an extraordinary athlete,
an exceptional athlete, who achieved the
dream that we have all had at one time or another,
and some still have today.
An excellent person. An athlete who
gives his best for his country, for his family,
for his friends, for the team.
The day when he won the Olympic medal
and I saw his interview that night,
the way he spoke and how he did it
totally changed my way of thinking.
I said to myself, "I have to think
"big and think like a winner,
"because in life we also need
"to be winners, not just specifically
"in sports."
Maybe I changed my way of thinking.
And he tells me, "I am a race walker
"because I saw you." And I tell him that
my kids will probably be race walkers
because they will see you.
It's a privilege to be a friend of him.
And it makes me feel happy when
I hear him saying, "I started race walking
"thanks to Erick."
(RIO 2016. RACE WALK MEN - 20KM)
Erick changed the life of the young
people in Chiyuc.
He has always been involved in young
groups, even before he was an athlete.
He helped young people from an association,
to work for development in both his town,
San Cristobal Verapaz and in Alta Verapaz.
I am one of the youngest Olympic medallists.
I won the medal two years after having
started to train professionally.
The moment when they put the medal
around your neck, it was a Guatemalan
who gave me mine, it brings back all
the years of struggling, of getting up early,
of staying up late, of the times
I went to bed hungry.
San Cristobal Verapaz had one of the
highest rates of mother-infant mortality.
Merely having a health centre and access to
medicine is going to change many lives,
because we will no longer see so
many mothers and children die.
When I was studying, many of my
friends' brothers, the babies died at birth.
They came to school sad, and I asked them,
"What happened?" "My brother died
"because my mother didn't
"make it to the hospital in time.
"It was so far away."
One day, a lady told me, "We have asked
"the mayor to help us with a
"health centre, but we still don't have one."
I told her, "Let me see what I can do."
I promised to get a health centre.
"It will be small, but I will give it to you."
Besides the health centre, he tried to
benefit those who were
studying basic education
and trade school in their village.
And he donated the remodelling
of their educational centre.
First, we built the secondary school
facility learning centre as students.
There was no budget. And we brought in
the stone from 2 kilometres away
on our backs and we built it ourselves.
Later, a company offered to help us.
They offered me an athletics track.
If you want it, I will do it, wherever you want.
I mentioned to them that they could
build an education centre instead,
which would benefit more people.
They asked what I was going to
get out of that. "Me? Being happy.
"Knowing that young people were
"going to study in a better place."
They got to work and built a
very large secondary school.
That's why it doesn't fall down,
because it was built with a lot of love,
with a lot of affection and a lot of commitment.
Now they have a mechanics workshop,
a bakery, they learn about electricity.
These young people are the future of
Guatemala.
Every day, when I went to bed,
I saw myself crossing the finish
line, winning a medal. Honestly,
I always saw myself as an Olympic champion.
Who dreams awake, makes his
dreams come true.
16 million of Guatemalans
now believe in ourselves.
He has marked my life.
And not only mine, but also that of
thousands of young people.
He has become an inspiration.
He has given Guatemala that
desire to get ahead.
For young people to do sports.
For them to do sports.
I'm here to teach them.
Honestly, I never intended to get
so far when I got started.
But I knew that athletics
could make a good story.
(THE POWER OF ONE. SPECIAL THANKS TO...)
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