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4	Faster, Higher, Stronger Introducing some of the dedicated Latino athletes who will be going for the golf in this summer’s Olympic Games in China. read more...
5	The King of Brazil At just 28, world soccer phenom Ronaldinho has established himself as one of the top players in the game, as well as a community-minded philanthropist seeking to improve the lives of youth. read more...

Going for Gold

As the clock counts down to the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing, five Latino athletes mentally, physically and spiritually prepare for their race to the rings.

Steven Lopez, 28
Sport: Taekwondo
This year’s games marks the third Olympics for Lopez, who has dominated the sport since his first run at the rings in 2000, which also marked the first time that Taekwondo was included in the games. Since then he has made himself “the one to beat.”
A fierce competitor and world title-winner, Lopez has excelled in part because of his family support. His two brothers and sister are also among the elite, having won gold medals in competitions before. Their father enrolled the oldest brother in classes for self-defense and discipline, and the rest followed suit.
“We would travel the country most of the time by car to all the competitions we could go to,” he says. “I was 8 or 9 when I saw taekwondo in Seoul. It was from that day forth that it was dream of mine to be an Olympian.” It seems fans are betting on another win for Lopez, which can put a lot of pressure on any athlete. “The expectations on me is to win a third [gold medal], but I try not to make that be a pressure,” he says. Could a fourth Olympics be in his future? “That’s the question everyone asks. Some people say stop when you are ahead. I compete because I love competition. I would say yes I would go on. [At the next Olympics] I would hate to think that I could have been won another gold.”

Brenda Villa, 28
Sport: Water Polo
Villa began her sports life following her older brother into water polo at age 8. It was a life changing step, as Villa is now one of the top water polo players in the world.
“I remember watching the 1992 Olympic games in Barcelona and seeing how special it was to be an Olympian,” she says. “I wanted to be special.” She would get her chance soon enough. After being selected to the Junior Olympic Team while she was in high school, Villa would later dominate at Stanford where she helped lead her team. While there she made her first trip to the games, but it wasn’t easy.
The team didn’t qualify at the first opportunity and had to wait six months to attempt again. When they finally did qualify and beat the Hungarian team, she says it was “one of the best sports moments in my life.” At the 2000 Sydney games, she helped bring home the silver. In 2004 she helped win the bronze.
“If we as a team can medal again, we would be the only team to have medaled in all three Olympic games and that can demonstrate to the world how special our team and sport is,” she says.

Guillermo Alvarez, 25
Sport: Gymnastics
Although gymnastics is one of the most physically grueling sports, it is also one that values artistry and grace in addition to technical perfection. “I am known as ‘the consistent gymnast,’ I bring reliability and consistency,” says Alvarez, a top-level gymnast and Olympic team hopeful. “I want to go into the competition without anyone questioning what I can do.” He might just get his chance this year as he attempts to secure a spot on the 2008 Olympic men’s gymnastics team.
His love of the sport began at 10 when started in club gymnastics. His natural talent would turn into a full time calling and in his teen years during the summers he would be up at 7 a.m. and train for hours, six days a week. Alvarez would train hard for years more. It paid off when he excelled at the University of Minnesota. While there, Alvarez participated in his first international meet in Korea in 2003. “It was after the first few international assignments that [I knew] the Olympics were a possibility,” he says.
He graduated in 2005 with a degree in psychology and a NCAA Nissen-Emery Award, college gymnastics’ highest honor. The following year and the one after that he was a part of the U.S. team at the World Championships. In June May he will compete in the Olympic trials and by July 1 Alvarez will know if he is headed for Beijing.

Jessica Mendoza, 27
Sport: Softball
The list of awards and accolades Mendoza has won could fill a book. A world champion several times over, she also counts Pan American gold medals and an Olympic medal among her repertoire. She’s been on the U.S. Women’s Softball team since 2001, and her amazing career was inspired by her athletically inclined father.
“I was daddy’s girl and he was the head football and baseball coach and I was the ball girl starting at age 4 so I was constantly around athletes and my dad coaching them,” Mendoza says. “I could see his passion and I just wanted to play.”
She has made it a priority to help other girls get the opportunity to play: she sits on the board of the Women’s Sports Foundation and on the board of the NEA Foundation.
Mendoza herself, like Villa, is a graduate of Stanford where she was a notable force on the softball field. She was named Stanford’s Female Athlete of the Year. She has traveled the world competing in her sport and the Olympics is a culmination of her training and talent shared on a global stage.
“There’s no event like the Olympic games; to be in one place with athletes from all over the world getting along, sharing one common goal,” she says. “As a softball player, this is our chance to prove to the world why we should remain an Olympic sport.”

Tony Azevedo, 26
Sport: Water Polo
Now known as one of the world’s best water polo players, Azevedo’s sports career was all but pre-ordained by his family avid love of sports, especially that of his father Ricardo, who inspired him to be an athlete.
“He was the coach of the national team and many other teams for years,” Azevedo says. “He used to take me to practices, and it was then that I was always surrounded by athletes.” But water polo was ultimately the family calling. “My mother started a mom’s water polo team in Long Beach, my sister plays pro in Italy and my father was a member of the Brazilian national team,” he says of his family.
Azevedo’s sports career began while he was in high school in Long Beach, California. As a university student at Stanford, Azevedo shone in his sport and won prestigious awards for every year he was in college. In 2000, while he was still in college, he scored a spot in U.S. Men’s Water Polo Team at the Sydney Olympics, and took 6th place overall. It was a performance he would nearly match in Athens in 2004 where he would take 7th place overall. “I saw the Olympics ahead and decided that I would give and do everything I could to represent the USA,” he says of his runs for the rings. “Once I walked through the gates and entered opening ceremonies, I was overcome by a sense of nationalism and pride. I was going to play to die. For me, representing the USA is the highest
honor.”