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TCNJ Magazine - Spring 2016

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13 MATT FURMAN 13 Repost: 1984 Olympics Orlando Cáceres '90 came so close to capturing the bronze in men's freestyle wrestling. We asked him to reminisce about the experience. "A guy approached me before one of my matches and told me to get a hold of him afterward, that he could get me video of all my Olympic matches. But I got whisked away to take a drug test and I never saw him again. I always wanted those tapes. "Then a year or two ago, a video of me wrestling at the Olympics pops up on YouTube. A coworker found it and told me. It was wild watching that. I always thought I was out of shape and goofy when I wrestled, but when I saw that video I thought, 'Oh my God, look at me.' My coworker told me I looked like Lionel Ritchie with all that hair. I vaguely remembered the match, so it was great to relive that moment. But the best part was that my wife and daughter got to see it." —as told to Brandon Gould "I was born in Puerto Rico, so I have dual citizenship. Two of my teammates were also from the United States: Carmelo Flores from Chicago and Mark Cabrera from New Jersey. It's funny because when the three of us went over there to try out, we were the Americans. Then I'd come back to the States, and I'm the Puerto Rican. I remember thinking, 'So what am I?' [laughs] "Competing in the Olympics was a dream come true. It was surreal running into Carl Lewis: I wasn't on the U.S. team, but I'm still an American, so to be in the company of someone like him was unbelievable. I crossed paths with so many great athletes. Some of them couldn't speak a lick of English, and I couldn't speak a lick of theirs, but we all had a common goal. That's what made the experience so amazing.

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