MIAMI (WSVN) - A South Florida homeschooler and statewide wrestling champion is speaking out on his comeback story, and it stretches from South Florida to across the globe.
Giovanni Tovar became a world champion at the U17 World Championships, with an incredible journey behind him.
“It’s a long journey. I probably spent six months prepping for this, just this tournament, straight prep, only this in mind, long, fun journey, hard journey,” he said.
Tovar is part of a Miami wrestling club that’s part of the Lil Abner Foundation.
Many of the athletes are homeschooled, as they compete across the country and the world year-round.
His latest victory happened a world away, as he won five matches to get the coveted gold for Colombia.
“Seeing all my hard work just come into fruition, so it feels really good, yeah,” said Tovar.
And it wasn’t his first time winning a championship.
“I think it just shows that what we’re doing is working and that anything’s possible, just showing that all the work that we’ve been putting in is going to lead to accomplishing our goals,” said Tovar.
Tovar’s journey has not not been an easy one. He tried out for the USA team but was not selected.
He was, however, selected to Colombia’s and pulled off a historic win.
“I could have been in the USA team, but they didn’t let me wrestle for them, so I’ll just take my path,” said Tovar.
For him, it was never a walk in the park, and it required hard work every day.
“All the hard work and the sweat, every practice, you’ve got to practice hard every day” he said. “Every day has to be 100%. You can’t take easy days off if you want to; you’ve just got to push through.”
But Tovar said part of the journey was having fun.
“Going to tournaments with your teammates, it’s fun, traveling around the world is fun, too — going and seeing all these cultures, eating good food,” he said.
Another part was having the right mental space.
“I knew, at the end of the day, my training and everything was at the high level,” he said. “I think it’s just believing in myself, and knowing that I could do it, it was really the hardest part and what ended up leading me to win this.”
By Tovar’s side as he won the ultimate trophy was his father, who’s part of the coaching team.
“We’ve been helping kids, you know, basically work hard to their goals and dreams,” said his father. “And what wrestling gives the opportunity to everybody is, it’s one of the few sports that what you put in, you get out.”
Tovar has some big goals set for his next chapter.
“To be undefeated this season, and to win another state championship and to go win some national tournaments, too. We have some big tournaments coming up, so win those, just keep training hard,” he said.
Tovar also hopes his championship gives the younger generation motivation and encouragement to train hard every day.
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