The end of the year 2012 was not good for the family ospina rodriguezbecause it was kilometer zero for a series of situations that changed the course of its members and forced them to make drastic decisions.
Juan Carlos Ospina Salamanca he earned his living with a street stall where he sold orange, red and aromatic juices in the neighborhood The Laches of Bogota. (Sebastián Villa is sentenced to two years and one month in prison for gender violence)
Sad news
By that time he had already separated from Maria Angelica Rodriguez who went to live Beautiful courtyard with his kids Johan Esneider, John Alexander and Jordan Smith, Colombian figure in the Youth Parapan American Games, that are inaugurated this Saturday, in Bogotá.
At 5 in the morning on December 8 of that year, thieves approached Juan Carlos, threatened him with a revolver, but at any moment a shot rang out and the vendor fell. The bullet went through his skull and he died.
María Angélica was left without their support and had to return to Los Laches to attend to the business that gave them their livelihood. A year and a half after the murder of Juan Carlos, she and her three children were forced to return to Beautiful courtyard. Several men threatened her, telling her that if she didn’t leave, they were going to kill her, so she made the drastic determination to sell the business and start from scratch.
Jordan began studying at one of the headquarters of Colombian Classrooms, a school that is located in the El Dorado neighborhood, in the south of Bogotá, in the afternoon session. He would leave at 5 pm and go to the other location of the cloister to wait for Johan Esnéider, since they only had a SITP card to pay for public transport.
Meanwhile, Jordan played cards with his classmates, he liked to hang out, go to the parks, but he didn’t study very much. Once they got on the bus, it took about an hour and a half to get home, but he didn’t like that, because he vomited many times. That ‘walk’ was traumatic for him.
harsh opinion
María Angélica earned a few pesos working night shifts at a car wash on Primero de Mayo Avenue, then she cleaned offices, all in order to feed her children. Jordan changed schools again, this time he was enrolled in the Manuel Zapata Olivella.
He was 9 years old and he had to go live with his grandmother, Maria Estella Alvarado Vanegas. One afternoon he earned a scolding from her. He told him not to look at her badly, not to twist his eyes, but the boy replied that he had not made those movements.
“My mom started crying. I told her that it was a lie, that she was going to correct my vision, that she relax and that I was not going to go blind.
The grandmother complained to her daughter several times, until they decided to take him to the doctor. They went to a health center in Fontibón, they performed eye exams, but everything came out normal.
Jordan Smith, who was born on May 27, 2005, in Bogotá, began to feel changes. He had to get closer to the television and at school he asked to be placed in the front row desks, since he did not see well.
Her mom decided to go to the Eye Clinic and present her case. He was scheduled for other tests and the results were not good. The ophthalmologists confirmed that he was losing his vision and that at the age of 14 he was going to go blind.
“My mom started crying. I told him it was a lie, that I was going to correct my vision, to relax and that I was not going to go blind,” Jordan said.
He lost second grade and told his mother that he would not go back to school and that what he wanted was to help her get money, so at the end of the year he began to sell candles for December 7 and the Colombian flag.
María Angélica spoke at the school where Jordan was and went to work as a cleaner. He became aware of her when she ran into her, after she separated him in a fight with another partner.
“I had a problem with a child and I hit him. It bothered me a lot, it was disrespectful and I hit him. I damaged a job, he came to hit me and I didn’t let him. My mom separated us. They called me ‘gallito Ramírez’ at that time. A teacher got in the way and thought that my mother was a friend of the family, but at that moment she realized that she was not like that, ”said the 18-year-old.
The change
That helped him change. He didn’t make sense that he was a bad student, troublesome and that his mother worked at the school. He set out to be judicious, he grew fond of books and even he raised the flag.
“How’s life. I was a gamer, I behaved badly, I didn’t like to study, I fought with other children, I was very rebellious, That is why they transferred me to the morning session and I had to change, because the situation was not the best”, the athlete specified.
Due to low vision, he ended up at the OEA school. He did not use a cane, he went home from his studies at night and even rode a bicycle, but his disability forced him to change cloisters.
There he met the sport. He liked to play soccer and enrolled in that elective and took music classes. Professor Melba told him that he could not kick a ball again because one blow could blind him.
Jordan, through tears, made the decision to leave soccer, his favorite sport, and decided on athletics, a discipline he did not know, had no reference to.
“One day, Melba put me on the bus in which the para-athletes were transporting and I went to train in the Timiza neighborhood,” recalled the para-athlete. In those training sessions he met the teacher paulo penawho asked him for some medical tests, which he did not take.
He practiced the shot drive and was on jumps. He threw about seven meters and qualified for the 2019 Intercollegiate Games. Jordan was the figure, as he won the 100 and 200-meter dash, he was gold in the long jump and in the shot, and that made him very happy. He realized that he could succeed in sports and he continued.
big goals
Those intercollegiate students opened the doors for the National games, That is why he had the help of Yulder, who had the same visual problem as Jordan, but it was the opposite, he was the one who helped him.
🇨🇴🌟Today our delegation received its flag🌟🇨🇴
🏊♀️Sara Vargas was the athlete in charge of receiving the national flag representing the 109 athletes who will represent Colombia at the Bogotá 2023 Youth Parapan American Games ❤️💙💚#imPARAblesenBogotá2023 pic.twitter.com/nptHRGShZ4
— Colombian Paralympic Committee (@COLParalimpico) June 2, 2023
Six months after its start in shy lHe took the exams to Paulo and that day he met Martha Liliana Hernandezto whom a neonatal meningitis that at three months of age caused cerebral palsy and limited mobility on the right side forced her to reach para-athletics and led her to become a medalist in the Paralympic Games 2016.
“I owe a lot to her because she was my guide. She always talked to me about overcoming, about leaving problems behind and I took those tips into account and put them into practice, ”Jordan specified.
But the problems for him did not stop. In 2020 the pandemic came and everyone had to go home. He did not have a computer, nor did he have an internet connection, and he needed it to complete classes at school and with training.
His mother lost her job, because the school closed its doors because everything was virtual. The days were difficult and when the order was given to open the store and for people to leave little by little, Jordan went to work again. He sold cleaners and garbage bags on the street.
That money was used to purchase the internet service, whose plan cost 40,000 pesos. The people who lived with Jordan in the grandmother’s house made an agreement and he paid a part.
At school they helped him with a computer and he continued studying in eighth grade. A year later he enrolled in the Nicolas Esguerra, a school where they helped him due to his visual disability. In the morning he studied and in the afternoon he trained, those were Jordan Smith’s tasks throughout the day.
I had lunch in a coca, which was rice, potatoes, and cassava. His classmates and his teachers helped him with some protein. Thus, he managed to overcome everything.
Today, Jordan Smith is happy. He remembers how hard life has hit him, but he says that it helps him to have more strength and achieve his goals.
Do you have a girlfriend. She shares time with Paola Andrea, whom she met when she started training at Timiza and is in a wheelchair.
At the Games, he wants to be on the podium in the 100 and 200 meters and in the long or long jump, go to a world championship and compete in the Paralympic Games.
(Piqué and Clara Chía: ‘new play’, caught in the Colombian consulate, the plan) (Mourning: absurd death of a cyclist in training, the pedal came off and ‘he shot off’)
Lisandro Rengifo
Editor of EL TIEMPO
@lisandroabel
#Jordan #story #warrior #runs #gold #Parapan #American #Games