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Donovan Carrillo Suazo debut on the ice rink
The young man was in position 22 of 24 among those classified
With great turns and great charisma, the figure skater, native of Mexico, Donovan Carrillo Suazo, made his debut at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.
In his childhood, Donovan was marked by comments that figure skating was a sport for women and that he had to dedicate himself to football.
Currently, he is among the 22 best athletes in the world in his discipline, despite the fact that Mexico does not have professional ice rinks for his training.
Under the rhythm of Carlos Santana and wearing an elegant black suit with gold rhinestones, Donovan qualified for the final of figure skating with 79.69 points in his debut, occupying position 22 of the 24 classified.
Donovan has become the only Mexican to reach a final instance in this category, in addition, he is the first athlete from his country to compete in the Olympic Games after 30 years of absence of Mexican representatives.
However, in a country where soccer predominates as the main sport, many people judge the young person who dedicates himself to this discipline, which has a tradition of female participants.
In an interview, Donovan assures that normally people associate artistic sports with women, assuring that in his childhood he had to deal with this type of comment. He added that people assumed that practicing an artistic sport would affect their sexual orientation.
The young skater considers that these prejudices prevent many young people from dedicating themselves to an artistic sport in their country. In addition to this, he indicates that it also affects the fact that professional ice rinks do not exist in his country.
Donovan's trainer, who has been by his side for 14 years, Gregorio Núñez, indicated that the desire of every Mexican trainer is to have the necessary infrastructure to keep athletes training in Mexico.
While making his debut, apart from astonishing the jury and the public with the musical choice for his presentation, "Black magic woman" by Carlos Santana, that day Donovan wore the colors of his country's flag on the blades of his skates.
On the other hand, breaking the stereotypes of classical and instrumental music, songs like “María” by Ricky Martin and “Sway” by Dean Martin were played in both presentations.
In his post-presentation interview, the athlete assured that he felt nervous, but he was sure that it was part of the presentation. “The most important thing is that I enjoyed myself. Fight for everything and not give up” he concluded.
a dream come true
In an interview for a relevant media outlet, the young athlete reported that his love for figure skating came when he was dating a girl who practiced the same discipline.
Donovan assured that he never thought that going after the conquest of a girl would lead him to find another love, and to find himself as a person.
Carrillo always showed love for what he likes to do. At the age of 16, while participating in his fourth international meeting, in one of his presentations he skated to the rhythm of "Hasta que te conocí" by Juan Gabriel, dedicating it to his mother, who is a fan of the singer.
The young skater, who overcame all the barriers he encountered on his path in artistic sports, acknowledges that his inspiration to be better every day comes from the opportunity to be one of the few athletes from Latin America at the Olympic Games.
Donovan hopes to inspire boys and girls in the region to pursue winter sports.
To finish, Donovan shouted between tears and emotion “This is for my family and for all of Mexico. Dreams do come true.”
