This athlete reveals what made him to hold on a sport career despite the obstacles.
All photographs provided by Freddy Pozo.
Freddy Daniel Pozo Guerrero was born in Piura City, Peru, on
October 7th, 1982. When he
still studied at San Miguel School, in this city, he premiered as an athlete
in 1994 School Games. He was recruited because of his talent into the so-called
Achievement Poles promoted by Cuban trainers.
In 1997, he classified to a Peruvian Northern tournament. He got a place that same year for a nationwide’s else.
Since 1999, he began to train
with Jose Bonilla Cortez. The next year, he won marathons in
Piura City, Trujillo (both in Peru), and Macará (Ecuador). His achievement as a
top athlete allowed
him to enter directly the university in Trujillo, in 2001, where he highlighted
in the 5K, 10K pedestrian tests, while he got high scores in lane – 800 meters, 1500 meters tests.
When his sport career
was rising, the first difficulty came in. An injury forced him to break
it all. He lost the scholarship.
He had to return to Piura
where he entered another university. His body seemed to react again as much as
he was an athletics university champion between 2005 and 2007. One of his major achievements was winning in Cuenca (Ecuador) amid his category. He covered 44.4 miles in 6 hours.
Despite he was the Best
Piurano in Piura’s Half Marathon, he decided to leave the sport and focus
in his studies in 2008. Then, he faced his second big difficulty. He
looked for sponsors but no
one granted him. “Sports are not profitable because you have to train 6 daily hours,” he tells. Aside the
time, he might invest in feeding and supplements. There was no money.
This decision carried him a third
difficulty. Freddy is 5.5 feet. In 2008, he was 123 lbs. Breaking suddenly
made him to increase 88 lbs, slightly .
A fourth difficulty
returned him to athletics but not in a competitive level. His mother was
diagnosed with cancer in
2016. In the beginning, she survived it, and the physical activity was part of the treatment. Freddy turned her coach.
He lived a fifth difficulty
with his mother. An apparent medical negligence caused her to pass away in
2019.
Freddy sheltered in the sport.
He went out running in the mornings, he went to the gym at nights, beginning himself in Olympic
discipline – powerlifting, very different to bodybuilding, because the first one addresses to hold on a weight in the air
the most time in the less number of moves as possible, the second one basically
addresses to model the muscles.
“Many people remembered me from my time as an athlete,” Freddy comments.
It was when the sixth
difficulty came in. Somebody used a pesticide to poison one of his
colleagues. Somehow, Freddy got poisoned. His central nervous system was under
attack causing him a temporary paralysis that has turned a fibromyalgia
–defined by Mayo Clinic as
generalized muscular pain and sensitiveness—through the years.
In freddy’s case, it turned
him off some flexibility. As the physical therapies were very expensive, he had to learn applying them. Even, he
opened a specialized center but he might close it because of the Covid-19
pandemic. Here we have the seventh difficulty.
During the lockdown, he
studied handball and volleyball which he graduated as a
technician. The interesting is he never has done any of them in his lifetime.
“I’m a little self-taught,” he affirms. “What I have learned was by my own.”
Up to this date, Freddy Pozo
coaches handball teams in sub-13 and sub-17 categories, he’s 135 lbs, he
believes the sport helped him to overcome every difficulty. It rejuvenated
him,even: “The training and the lifestyle make me looking like a 27-year-old
dude,” he assures.
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