Judoka Thomas Briceño, a student at the Mechanical Civil Engineering program of Universidad de Santiago, is ready to compete in the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games.
When Thomas Briceño Gonzáles was seven, he was 150 cm tall and weighed 80 kg. Being overweight was the reason why he started practicing judo. His first club was the Escuela de Carabineros Club, until 2009. “At first, I could not understand the rules or the Japanese terms used during the combats, so I lost several times. This is why the first medal I got was a gift from my father and it was for my effort,” Briceño says.
In 2005, when he was 11, he participated in his first South American championship for children, where he won a silver medal. His family had to cover all his expenses. Since then, he was constantly part of the judo national team.
In 2013, he faced a new challenge: he had to prepare himself for the PSU, the university selection test. It was then when he was offered the possibility of entering the university by means of an athletic scholarship. “I discussed this with my family and I chose Universidad de Santiago de Chile, not only for the full scholarship but also for its academic quality,” he says. He decided to enter the Mechanical Civil Engineering program.
“My professors and classmates have really supported me, so I have been able to focus on judo. I am proud of having represented the university in national and Latin American competitions,” he says.
First Chilean judoka to win a medal in Europe
22-year-old Thomas remembers that he has participated in championships almost in every country of the Americas and also in Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia. He has been South American and Pan American champion and runner-up. “I was the first Chilean (judoka) to win a medal in a world-class European championship. It was in Bulgaria, where I got the third place out of 56 competitors,” he says.
Besides being part of the Chilean team, he is a member of DAR Chile, the Chilean association of top-class athletes.
His training and preparation in Chile has already finished and today he is in Brazil, ready to be an Olympian in Rio 2016, on August 10th. “My goal in Rio is to be placed among the first seven competitors in my category and I am planning to win a medal in Tokyo 2020,” Thomas says.
He also says that he will come back to the university to continue his studies in March 2017. “Maybe completing my program will take me longer, but judo will not last forever,” he concludes.
Translated by Marcela Contreras