The Olympics - Diego's Fight For the Gold

So when I started planning this trip with the girls I had no idea when the Olympics were taking place and where they were being held. We didn't originally plan on going to London and were going to spend a whole week in Ireland.

My cousin Diego was competing for a spot in the 2012 Olympics for Tae Kwon Do for Mexico and the Olympics were going on the same exact time we were in Europe. So i knew that if he made it to the Olympics I was going to switch my plans around and head to London to watch him. We found out he made the Olympic team in the spring and also that he would be competing August 8th which was perfect for me because that's the exact week I was suppose to be in Ireland.

I bought my tickets to all 3 events for the day that he would possible be competing in and bought my ticket from Dublin to London. People thought I was crazy for spending $500 to watch my cousin, but when else are you going to have family in the Olympics?! I wanted to be there to support all the hard work that he's been putting in his entire life.

Several of the family members went to support Diego. He competed on August 8 at the Excel Event Center. The family was staying at the Clearlake Hotel and so we all walked to the event center together. One of the family members was awesome enough to make us all shirts so we could cheer on Diego.

When we got there the arena was packed! There were so many people there. When Diego came out to fight the family went crazy. We were all screaming and cheering for Mexico. It was just so amazing being able to be there to support a family member and be able to witness this great moment. Unfortunately Diego did not move on to the Semifinals and his Olympic events were cut short. He fought the best he could and because of a judge's call was not awarded all the points he should have and that cost him the chance to compete for the gold.

I spent the rest of the day with the family at the event center. It was a long day but completely worth being there to watch a family member's dreams come reality!

I loved being able to spend the day with my family since I don't get to see them often because they live in Mexico. I can't wait to see Diego compete in 2016 and see his growth in the sport of Tae Kwon Do and watch him accept his gold medal :)




Alejandra