The 26-year-old Santiago Ford traveled 6,000 kilometers (3,700 miles) from his native Cuba to Chile in 2018 after a group of Chilean coaches visited the island. The decathlete had just placed fourth in the junior world championships, but he knew that that wasn’t enough in his country.
Chile’s Santiago Ford celebrates winning the gold medal in the men’s decathlon at the Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile, Tuesday, Oct. 31, 2023. Chile’s Santiago Ford celebrates winning the gold medal in the men’s decathlon at the Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile, Tuesday, Oct. 31, 2023. Chile’s Santiago Ford competes in the men’s decathlon discus throw at the Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile, Tuesday, Oct. 31, 2023.
Ford flew from Cuba to Guyana in September 2018, took a boat to Brazil, crossed the country to get to Peru and entered Chile’s north. He then followed train tracks in the middle of the Atacama Desert to reach the capital, Santiago.Santiago opens Pan American Games with nod to the Indigenous, poetry and memory of dictatorship“When it got to the finishing line I slowed, it wasn’t because I wanted to. Suddenly I remembered when I was walking through the desert at 5 a.m.
The idea of traveling 6,000 kilometers from Cuba to Chile crossed Ford’s mind after a group of Chilean coaches visited the island. At the time, the decathlete had just placed fourth in the junior world championships, but he knew that that wasn’t enough in his country. So he decided to leave. “Immigrants go through a lot of things, you need a lot of work to reach your goals,” Ford said. “At first it was not like I thought, but God gave me the opportunity of reaching it.”
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