When Ariel Torres was 11, he stood with a collection jar at a traffic light, day in and day out, striking karate poses as his father stood next to him holding a sign that read 'Donations for Karate Competition'.
His family, who left Cuba for the United States when Torres was four, couldn't afford the trip to the national karate championships that he wanted to compete in. But Torres's parents didn't want to disappoint their son, who never asked for much knowing that money was tight.
The trip paid off: little Torres won first place in both the solo "kata" and sparring "kumite" contests - disciplines that debuted at the Tokyo Olympics this week, and where, 12 years on, Torres won a bronze for the United States in kata on Friday. Torres said money was short for many more years. Becoming a professional athlete required making it to the top 12 in world rankings, which in turn meant costly international trips, he said.
Torres said he would give "whatever money I get" to his parents, and that just qualifying for the Olympics had helped him to get "more clothes than I've had in my whole life", from the likes of Nike and Ralph Lauren, which are dressing Team USA's Olympians.
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