Immigration Stuff Sorted, Guatemalan Runner Luis Grijalva Can Now Put All His Energy into Sports
Guatemala's star long-distance runner, Luis Grijalva, is ready to kill it at the Paris Olympics with nothing but sports on his mind. Unlike before, when he had to deal with a bunch of pesky immigration stuff, now he's all set to just run his heart out.
In the past, poor Luis had to juggle training with a whole mess of immigration paperwork. He's been living in the U.S. since he was basically a baby, and the DACA program was his ticket to stay safe but it also meant he had to jump through hoops to go to other countries for competitions. He had to get special permission to leave and come back to the U.S., which was a total hassle and took up a lot of his time and energy.
But now, something amazing has happened! Luis scored an O-1 visa, which is like the VIP pass for athletes and other really talented folks. This bad boy lets him travel to the Olympics without any drama and even visit Guatemala whenever he feels like it, which is a big deal because he hasn't been back since he was just a tiny tot.
He told The Associated Press, "It's like night and day, man. It was so expensive and took forever to get those permits. I had to talk to all these lawyers and whatnot. But now, I can just hop on a plane to Guatemala whenever I want. It's a game-changer."
This dude's got his eyes on the prize—he's aiming to snag a medal in the 5,000-meter race on Wednesday. If he pulls it off, he'll be only the third person from Guatemala to ever do that at the Olympics. Talk about making everyone back home super proud!
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