Luis Grijalva Put Dreamers And DACA In The Spotlight Through The Olympics, Now He Has Bigger Goals To Continue Inspiring
The CITIUS MAG Podcast | A Running + Track and Field Show
CITIUS MAG
4.9 • 1.9K Ratings
🗓️ 9 February 2022
⏱️ 87 minutes
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Summary
"There are over 600,000 dreamers in America. When I think about my situation at the Olympics, out of the 600,000 Dreamers, imagine if there was someone else in the same exact situation higher than Olympics or even better than the Olympics – something better than that and they can’t get the opportunity to go to their event or do this or that. That’s why my whole movement when it started it was really big for all the Dreamers in the U.S. It was an inspiration I think to say if I could do it, they can do it. It’s really difficult to be in the situation we are in because there are a lot of obstacles we have to go through. It’s really hard to leave the country in the first place. Imagine if you’re somebody who wants to travel and see the world, you might not ever have the opportunity to do that because if you leave you can’t get back in. I think I kind of started something and got more recognition for what DACA is and what Dreamers are.”
Luis Grijalva was an Olympian for Guatemala at the Tokyo Olympics and finished 12th in the 5,000 meter final. His road to get to the Games was not easy. In his final race as an NAU Lumberjack, he qualified for Tokyo when he ran 13:13 for the Olympic standard when he finished second at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. Shortly after that performance, he had to figure out a way to get to Tokyo because his status as a beneficiary of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals prevented him from leaving the United States without being able to return to the United States. He hired a lawyer and through the support of many members of the running community and mounting media pressure, he was able to get permission from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to leave. You’ll hear his backstory going back to moving to the United States as a one-year-old, the opportunities that sports and his education presented him and the lasting legacy that he hopes being able to compete at the Olympics was able to provide inspiration to many of the other Dreamers in America.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Sidious Mac Podcast. I'm your host, Chris Chavez. The Sidious Mac Podcast is presented by Final Surge. |
| 0:07.0 | No matter if you're an athlete or coach, Final Surge helps plan and attain both short and long-term training success. |
| 0:14.0 | Their free online training log is compatible with Garmin, Strava, Polar, Stride, Corros, and a slew of other apps and devices. |
| 0:22.0 | If you're a coach, Final Surge makes planning and analyzing workouts simple and helps streamline communication with your athletes. |
| 0:28.0 | Some of the top coaches in the world who have been guests on this podcast use it on a daily basis. |
| 0:33.0 | If you're an athlete out there, hammering miles and tempo runs solo with no guidance or direction, Final Surge is also here to offer up some world-class training programs. |
| 0:41.0 | Get yourself a training plan for that spring 5K, that half marathon or full marathon that's on your calendar right now. |
| 0:47.0 | They've got plans from Ben Rosario at NAZ Elite, Drew Hunter and Christine Thorn and the Tin Man Squad with their Hammer and Axe plans are up on there. |
| 0:54.0 | Hit the classics with Greg with Millen or Boston Marathon Champion and Beberfoot. |
| 0:58.0 | If you're a fan of the sport and are curious how the pros are training, Kellyn Taylor, Stephanie Bruce, and the rest of the NAZ Elite Squad share all of their training logs on Final Surge. |
| 1:07.0 | Give it all a look at FinalSurge.com and if something sticks out to you, catch an episode next week for how you can get your hands on a nice discount for the City of Smeg podcast listeners. |
| 1:17.0 | Feel free to reach out to me if you need it sooner. |
| 1:19.0 | Visit FinalSurge.com today. |
| 1:24.0 | Support for this episode also comes from listeners like you. |
| 1:28.0 | Many thanks to everyone who has backed us on Patreon, a warm welcome to Ravenna Neville, Emma Jacob Schultz, and Sherry Outler for signing up within the past week. |
| 1:36.0 | If you enjoy what we're doing across the City of Smeg podcast network, whether it's this show, run your mouth more than running, or if you just follow us to keep up with the sport on social media, on Instagram, on Twitter, support us over at patreon.com slash City of Smeg so we can keep it going. |
| 1:50.0 | On Patreon, you can choose to donate anything from a dollar a month and we even have some people who are super generous and donate $31 a month, which is a dollar a day or $20 a month or $10 a month. |
| 2:01.0 | It's also that we can cover hosting expenses, plan our on location coverage, hit some content trips, cover our website expenses, and much more other things like hiring a podcast producer for some of our shows. |
| 2:12.0 | Think of $4 a month on Patreon like buying me or my colleague McFleet or Kyle Merber or a cup of coffee. |
| 2:18.0 | Anything more than that is greatly appreciated. |
| 2:20.0 | And for those of you who are unable to commit to a monthly contribution, you can also make a one-time donation by sending any dollar amount over to the City of Smeg on Venmo. |
| 2:28.0 | Feel free to include any message to let us know why. |
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